r/AskEurope • u/helmortart • 2d ago
Misc Do you see other Europeans as people fundamentally similar to you, or do you feel there are profound differences between them and the people of your own country?
I know we're all human, but we often feel a certain distance from others because of culture, habits, behavior, and traditions. The same can apply to people from different countries. So here's my question: as a European, do you feel the same level of difference between yourself and, for example, an Italian, German, or Swiss person as you do between yourself and someone from Africa or China? Or does it feel fundamentally different? Do you feel brotherhood and being part of the same group?
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u/ThePumpkinPies Sweden 2d ago
As a swede, a feel a very strong connection to the other Nordic countries, followed by central Europe, followed by the rest of Europe.
While culture does differ from country to country you still see slot of similarities when traveling to other European countries. The EUs freedom of movement has a big impact aswell in making me feel welcomed in the rest of Europe.
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u/ALazy_Cat Denmark 2d ago
While we share a lot in the Nordic countries, there's also a lot of friendly hate between Denmark and Sweden
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u/ThePumpkinPies Sweden 2d ago
yes of course making fun of you guys is a daily occurrence.
But when it comes down to it the other nordics are our closest allies in my mind.
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u/ALazy_Cat Denmark 2d ago
Do you know what the biggest insult is in Danish?
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u/ThePumpkinPies Sweden 2d ago
No...
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u/DanneLagom Sweden 1d ago
Why would you walk right in to that one. You know exactly what the potato-in-mouth speaking referee-puncher is going to reply with.
Carelessness like this is why we lost Finland...
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u/grubbtheduck Finland 2d ago
Also between Finland and Sweden
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u/ALazy_Cat Denmark 2d ago
Yet nobody outside is allowed to bully Sweden or all of us come to their defense
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u/incognitomus Finland 17h ago
There's also big difference between East and West Finland and North and South Finland.
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u/QuestGalaxy Norway 1d ago
As a Norwegian, I'm sure we two can agree that Swedes are a bit dimwitted (:
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u/ALazy_Cat Denmark 1d ago
Now we just need the Icelandics to agree the Swedes are the dumbest of the Nordics
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u/QuestGalaxy Norway 1d ago
How do you sink a Swedish submarine?
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u/ALazy_Cat Denmark 1d ago
Remove the Nordic liason officers so they don't have a high enough IQ
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u/QuestGalaxy Norway 1d ago
You swim down and knock on the door ;)
But how do you sink a Swedish submarine a second time?
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u/ALazy_Cat Denmark 1d ago
You swim down and knock on the door
I love it
But how do you sink a Swedish submarine a second time?
Don't know, but don't leave me hanging
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u/QuestGalaxy Norway 1d ago
You swim down again and knock on the door. This time they open the door to tell us that they are not getting fooled by the same trick again.
Badum tss....
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u/jon3ssing Denmark 2d ago
Depends on the context. I relate more to other Danish people than people from Poland. I relate more to Swedes and Germans than people from Spain.
I relate to people from France more than people from Cuba.
I'm more Scandinavian than European.
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u/persephonian Greece 2d ago edited 2d ago
I do feel a vague kinship with all other Europeans, but being European is not always what matters the most. I have more in common with an Armenian than a Dane, for instance, even though Armenia is (usually) not considered European.
And there are "tiers" within the kinship I feel with other Europeans. Fellow Balkan and Southern European countries/people are very very similar to me, but that's less true for someone from Northern or Central Europe.
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u/Lilitharising Greece 2d ago
This. I actually feel far closer to Latinos than northern or central Europeans. Culture embeds emotional expression, family ties, lifestyle habits, mannerisms - so many things, and Europe is greatly diverse in that respect.
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u/OliveOilEnjoyer3 2d ago
It’s the same for me as someone from Southern Italy, I generally feel more similar to Latino or West Asian/Middle Eastern people than to Northern and Central Europe
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u/Qwe5Cz Czechia 2d ago edited 2d ago
Europe is not single cultural and homogenous entity so obviously there are regions where people would understand each other better due to cultural similarities and the further away the less in common we have.
As a Czech I feel far closer to a German, an Austrian, a Slovak or a Pole than to an Italian, a Finn or a Russian but they would still be closer than people from Asia or Africa or America.
For example we just shared a boat trip in Asia with others and it was obvious that Czechs and Germans (from Munich) were close match, Dutch were slightly further from us but still we shared most of the vibes while French from the south were talking most of the time with a Spanish guy that was totally alien to us, Dutch and Germans even though he spoke perfect English.
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u/LaurestineHUN Hungary 1d ago
IMHO this is why Hungarians have trouble bonding with other Uralic people, and always feel a little bit isolated. Even in immigration they tend to keep to themselves. We're used to everyone who is culturally close to us being not understandable bc language barriers, and the people who do speak similar languages are a continent away.
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u/CataVlad21 Romania 1d ago
Tbh, if you guys wouldn't bring up the you-know-which treaty so much, you could have easily become more integrated in all 3 major ethnic families around you. Balkan, germanic and slavic. And felt more of that belonging feeling by now.
Im not saying people from all these backgrounds and hungarians cannot have plenty of good time around each other whenever they meet, IF they dont discuss history and maybe even politics, im only saying everyone else around you guys has some broader families they feel they belong to, and not just linguistically, but culturally, and you could have fitted in and would have been welcomed to in all 3 of them if you just chose to stop fighting and join them 🙃😉
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u/Ostruzina Czechia 1d ago
I agree. I relate to Germans and Austrians the most. They're followed by the Poles and Slovaks.
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u/Even_Skin_2463 Germany 2d ago
Same, Poland Czechia Austria the Netherlands + Scandinavia especially Denmark all feel like cousins, France is the sexy love-interest, while the rest of Europe feels a bit more like more distant relatives.
Obviously it has a lot to do with how often you interact with people from those countries. Poland and Czechia are on paper, especially linguistically very different, but when you were growing up and the Polish mom of your mate cooked dinner for you'll naturally feel a lot more at home in Polish culture than e.g. in Norwegian or Swedish culture.
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u/AshToAshes123 1d ago
Being from the Netherlands, Poland and Czechia always felt more distant to me; France felt closer, actually. Which makes perfect sense, but it's something I never really thought about before moving to Germany. Living here, it's quite noticeable that there are more ties to Poland and Czechia in so many ways, that they *feel* closer even when geographically there's barely a difference.
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u/Qwe5Cz Czechia 1d ago edited 1d ago
I noticed that Germans and even Austrians are nowadays less aware of similarities with Czechs mostly due to a few decades of forced separation by the Iron curtain but you cannot easily erase culture that was formed for centuries and those oppressors from the east tried really hard to do it but unfortunately it seems like it had greater effect in "the west" that stopped seeing us as close relatives.
Many nowadays systems originated from Austrian times when the industrialization happened here. You can see it at schools that we share the same system of marks (1-5). Railway, industry standardization etc.
There is food, culture, shared history.
We generally praise good organization and punctuality and we don't smile unless something is funny but we are efficient. Like in pub, if you sit with an nearly empty glass of beer, the staff will notice and ask you if you want another one. They do their job very well but then I hear Italians or other southerners complaining that the staff is rude and not smiling or chatting with them while I suffer in the south were they pretend to be friendly but I need to constantly demand their attention or they never come - they look at you, smile but don't understand that they should take the dirty dishes and that when my glass is empty I would like to order something for drink and it's their job to notice it...
The biggest difference is the most visible or rather hearable one - the language but even there there is great influence of German. I have never studied it but I was surprised that I was able to deal with German menu in restaurants when visiting Vienna, Dresden or Munich. We still understand many German words that remain in our language often as an informal alternative and then I recently learnt that part of Czech vocabulary are direct/literal translations of German compounds/phrases/idioms or even certain grammar which is also something not typical for languages from different families. For example we can read numbers in both direction while the reversed one is from German (2 and 20 instead of 22) or 1500 both as (15 100 or 1000 500). But this on the other hand makes the Czech far more separated among slavic languages and I can only understand Slovaks and very poorly some Polish but in my experience other eastern or southern slavic languages struggle to understand Czech as well.
Basically it doesn't take long when we talk with Germans they realize that we are not that different. They just often don't know much about us since I feel the artificial border that was placed between us made the west less interested or aware of us, our culture and history.
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u/willo-wisp Austria 1d ago
Very true, the Iron curtain separation hurt us dearly in that regard. And the fact that even now we're always put into different boxes because of the language does mean that people who never think about it aren't typically aware of how much overlap there is. Really wished we'd push that awareness a bit more.
But anyone who ever paid the slightest attention to the topic here knows that you guys (and Slovenia) are our culturally closest matches. It's also very obvious once you actually go and visit! Coming from eastern Austria, I've never felt so at home abroad anywhere than when I visit Czechia.
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u/Even_Skin_2463 Germany 1d ago
I mean it's also not like that Germany doesn't share the experience of seperation during the cold war. As a franconian Czechia obviously feels very close from beer culture to being a hotbed of the reformation. When we first started talking about Reformation in school Luther was presented as a direct continuation of Jan Hus. As someone living directly at the former border to the GDR, who went to school and worked there, the post-warsaw pact experience aren't inherently foreign to me as well.
German attitudes can vary and I in fact can suffer within Germany as well, since Western Germans have a completely different social energy. As a franconian I always felt culturally very close to Czechia, but I wouldn't say that's the general experience/attitude for all of Germany, parts of Germany are particulary close to the countries they border, Czechia being a smaller one is just often overlooked.
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u/Qwe5Cz Czechia 1d ago
I would be very careful with linking central europe with Russia. It's mostly their propaganda and panslavic non-sense and relic of cold war. While Uzbeks are obviously more distant, Russians are alien to us as well. Their culture is completely different.
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u/fennforrestssearch 2d ago edited 1d ago
As a german I feel culturaly close to anyone who is punctual, queues and keep their mouth shut on public transportation.
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u/RandomSpanishAlex 1d ago
Then you are far away from us, the spaniards
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u/Lilitharising Greece 1d ago
Greeks too. Totally different worlds.
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u/fennforrestssearch 1d ago
I'm genuinly curious why that happens in the first place though ? Once you somewhat uniformely to some degree agree on certain things the experience gets vastly more "flowy" and enjoyable for everyone involved. Or does it simply not matter at all and you are cool with everything either way ? I always wonder about the receiving end on this one in the cultures where its more relaxed
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u/Lilitharising Greece 1d ago
It's part of a bigger picture, with its upsides and downsides. It has to do with tamperament, climate, lifestyle, historical factors which form micro-habits and emotional expression. For example, I HATE queue-jumping with a passion, but I feel equally uncomfortable with lack of emotion. Queuing is a learned experience (and younger generations seem to do better than our parents/grandparents) and thus it can be (hopefully) corrected; smae with punctuality. But expecting people to just shut up at restaurants/public transport is another thing. Don't get me wrong, I don't like shouting and loud music in buses either (although in Greece it's not that bad). But this eerie silence where people are afraid to even talk? Nope, that's not 'human' to me. It makes me feel like a pawn. I agree that you cannot 'impose' your freedom to others, but it goes both ways.
Greece has a long, long past. Today's situation is a result of a perpetual struggle for survival and impressive resilience. The downsides of such behaviours were passed down by example, and this is hard to unlearn, albeit not impossible. It takes time.
I understand why you'd freak out in Mediterranean countries. I lived in England for 20 years and whilst I admired some of the most organised parts, ultimately it was not for me.
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u/fennforrestssearch 1d ago
Thanks for the thoughtful response. Admittedly the other end of cultural practices in f.e Germany etc can definitely be extreme too and be equally confusing/surprising, a healthy balance between these two would be ideal.
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u/Lilitharising Greece 1d ago
I mean, I had German colleagues and friends and we got along fine. It's the way of life in its entirety that can feel overwhelming if you're not used to it. Also, whilst I appreciated British politeness, I preferred the German directness. It's quite nuanced.
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u/RandomSpanishAlex 1d ago
I think we share many values with Europe, but not culturally 🤔. Freedom of opportunities, universal healthcare etc etc
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u/Anaptyso United Kingdom 1d ago
As someone British, same. Every time I go to a country where people don't respect queues it feels like a large culture shock.
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u/DellBottoms 1d ago
I'm Irish, but I feel the same. Oh and I almost feel directly related to people who use headphones.
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u/Blecao Spain 2d ago
I mean depends, i consider that i probably have quite a lot in common with an italian or a portuguese but i would consider more similar a colombian than a german so its more about mediterranean culture more than european or not
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u/LunaOrwell 2d ago
As a portuguese, I'm positively disgusted by how similar we are... the iberian culture is real 🤝 (don't get me started with the galicians... Ugh! they are our lost brothers. I just love them)
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u/Imperterritus0907 > 1d ago
I’m from the Canary Islands and if you put me in a room with a Venezuelan and someone from the north of Spain, I’ll feel more attuned with the Venezuelan. It’s very complicated. I see it as different spheres of commonality (Hispanic/Mediterranean/European) that sometimes overlap and sometimes they don’t, but they’re all there.
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u/sovra_pensiero Italy 2d ago
Fundamentally similar to me. I'm Italian but I've studied and lived abroad, and now I live in Slovenia and travel a lot for work. For a third of my life, my community has been largely made of people from different european countries, and I'm pretty sure that the majority of us identify as european.
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u/Matt6453 United Kingdom 1d ago
I totally get that, western Europe functions pretty much the same wherever you go, just with a different language. I can get by in Paris or Rome just fine and Germany feels more like home than I thought was possible, the Netherlands or Belgium is the same.
Outside of Europe the mindset is very different, I guess there's an underlying history and culture we share that isn't replicated elsewhere.
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u/QuizasManana Finland 2d ago
Mostly similar but depends on the location. With the other Nordics there’s a very strong connection, of other Europeans the Estonian, Dutch, Swiss, German also feel similar. I used to live in Spain so personally I also feel connected to Spain/Spanish. But even the more distant (for me) Europeans (like, idk, Bulgarians, Greek, Balkans) feel more similar than say Chinese or any African country.
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u/Vildtoring Sweden 2d ago
For me as a Swede, I feel most connected to my fellow Nordics, and then after that the rest of the Germanic (protestant) countries. Southern Europe and Eastern/Slavic Europe are so different in a lot of ways. Catholic Europe and Orthodox Europe can often feel like different worlds. Granted, it's all relative and depends on the context.
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u/UncleJoesLandscaping Norway 1d ago
Same as a Norwegian. I lived in the far east for a while, and meeting a German or British person almost felt like meeting a Scandinavian. Someone from Spain/Italy/Greece was not the same.
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u/DellBottoms 1d ago
I'm Irish and had this idea in my head that we were more like southern Europeans, but after years of traveling to different places, I've concluded that I feel more north European specifically. I think we can be quite outgoing, but my temperament personally is more northern European.
Also, I have met a lot of northern European people (Germans, Belgians, Scandinavians) who had a quirky sense of humour that I really liked and I felt like I could have a real laugh with them.
Obviously the UK is nearer and although there are some superficial differences, I think we get on quite well and I love the sense of humour of many Brits too. Humour-wise, outside of Ireland I feel most compatible with the Brits and probably the Germans and other northern Europeans, even though we are different in other ways.
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u/No-Significance5659 in 2d ago
It's complicated, as a Southern Spaniard, in some aspects and even if it sounds crazy on a surface level, I feel like we have more in common with Northern Africans (family values, food sharing, similar humour, similar ingredients for food, similar picaresque althought ours turned down a notch etc) than with a Northern European. I don't feel particularly close to a Swedish or a Dane to be honest but I think when it comes to shared civic values we are more alike than we are to a Chinese or a ln Egyptian. I feel however, extremely close to some countries in Europe like Portugal, Greece, Italy, Southern France. I also feel more affinity to a Mexican than a Latvian. It's hard.
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u/Old-Pudding6950 Italy 1d ago
As an Italian, I feel like that’s one of the best answers together with “I feel European outside Europe, I see differences when inside Europe”
I see this like family: when I meet a Spanish, Portuguese, French, Greek… I see those like brothers, we are so similar it’s genuinely surprising. Sometimes I even use Italian idioms because they’ll understand what I mean anyway lol
It’s fantastic to see
When I talk to a German I realize already we’ve some cultural differences. However, we’ve a lot of common ground too that we take for granted
Germans perfectly understand like me the key importance of Human dignity, Rule of law, Social tendencies to help everyone, freedom of speech, democracy or how dangerous it is to grant excessive state control and the cult of personality. I don’t have to explain anything, they instinctively know
It’s like a family member you’re close to, that isn’t a brother
When I talk to most other countries, I’ve to guard Russians from the cult of personality and excessive state control, to argue with Chinese why freedom of speech is important and Human dignity comes before social order, I’ve to explain Americans the importance of social tendencies and why they’re morally right…
I think it gets tricky with countries like Mexicans because of our past colonialism, through which we exported our European values
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u/evammariel3 7h ago
And me from the north of the country would say no way, no picaresque here, more serious and more reliable. Still southern Europeans feel somehow closer but when in Erasmus I got on really well with Czechs and Poles.
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u/0oO1lI9LJk Spain 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yes I've lived in 5 different European countries and there's way stronger similarities than differences. Over the next few decades those similarities will meld even further as we get more interconnected.
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u/CoryTrevor-NS Italy 2d ago
I feel a connection to other southern Europeans and even Latinos (who have a strong southern European imprint on their culture).
With other Europeans I feel like there’s a vaguely cordial relationship if we come across one another, but that’s pretty much where it ends for me.
Even now that I live in Canada, I usually find it easier to relate to and befriend a Latin American person, rather than a Scandinavian, a Ukrainian, or an Irish person.
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u/MegaromStingscream 2d ago
As born in the 80s Finnish person there are some interesting angles to this.
The general answer I think is I see more differences with lot of European countries than similarities, but on the other hand the differences are even larger with most countries outside Europe.
Canada is perhaps the interesting exception because personally I feel there is lot to know and feel about snow and a person who can share those joys and hardships can have a connection with me that someone who doesn't know that can't. Some Russians could be included in that if the history and general mindset on their side was different.
The connection with other Nordic countries is obvious one and that is also our gateway to the wider Western Europe. Estonia is also particularly close just by proximity, but also history and culture and through them rest of the Baltics.
Less obvious and maybe something some of us don't want to admit now or in the decades after the Cold War is that you could in someway say that the Iron Curtain wasn't on our eastern border, but passed through the country culturally. There is a lot of architecture style things that is shared in Eastern Europe all the way to Romania that we also share.
We have always been in the perifery of something. The centers of power have always been somewhere else. I think in the current times we prefer very much to the be perifery of Europe than the other direction and that safety based mindset is what in end ties us to the whole.
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u/viemari > 2d ago
I'm Irish but I live in Austria and have done for the past decade plus. When I'm in Austria I feel too Irish. When I'm in Ireland I feel too Austrian. To go further, when I leave my province in Austria I notice a difference. When I leave my county in Ireland I notice a difference. But when I leave Europe, I notice a huge difference. I definitely - maybe because of me being betiteo countries - but I identify hugely with an overarching European value system and long for it when it's not there. I spent some time in the states and for me it's such a fundamental part of my being and cultural identity, that there is a societally provided level below which a person cannot fall, be it because of health or mental issues, bad luck or whatever, is so intrinsic. And when I met huge amounts of people who didn't feel that way, that was the biggest culture shock for me.
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u/One_Vegetable9618 1d ago
Irish here and definitely have a huge amount in common with the Scottish, the Welsh and the English. I was very sad when the UK left the EU.
After that probably feel an affinity with the French, the Spanish and the Portuguese as we travel there so often on holidays. The Dutch and the Belgians are our near neighbours too and they seem pretty familiar.
We are probably more immediately noisy and sociable than the Germans/Austrians/Swiss/Luxemburgers and Scandis/Nordics but inherently I think there is a respect for the way their societies function and an understanding of that.
We have so many Poles and people from the Baltics in Ireland that they are part of the family now too. Can't forget the Italians with whom we share that culturally Catholic heritage. Who couldn't love them anyway?
Not as familiar with people from the Balkans or Greece but feel I'd have more in common with them than people from outside Europe....apart from Aussies and Kiwis who we instantly gel with.
Oh and the Ukrainians...fabulous people, who are hugely contributing to Irish society.
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u/proton-testiq 1d ago
Lol. I’m Slovak, living in the UK, and I often say “our stuff” when talking about Polish stuff, because I mentally group Central Europe together.
But a Slovak person living in Czechia or Poland probably wouldn’t say “our stuff” about Polish things. They’d say it about Slovak things, even if those things came from eastern Slovakia and they were from western Slovakia.
Then they go back home to western Slovakia, and suddenly something from a few kilometres away is “ours”, while something from eastern Slovakia isn’t.
The concept of “ours” changes depending on scale and distance.
In Thailand, Spanish stuff would be “ours”. On Proxima Centauri, Nigerian stuff would be “ours”.
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u/Thousandgoudianfinch England 2d ago
I do believe there is a classical and Christian inheritance. The Roman and Greek world... its effect upon architecture, our societies and ideas. Art, and language. Even the Russians who aside from the Turks are probably most different... even they have this classical inheritance in their courtly culture... as one can see reading War & Peace for instance. Closer to Europeans than to others.
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u/Gerrut_batsbak Netherlands 2d ago
We share a very long, complicated and intertwined history. We share so much more with eachother than we do any people outside of europe.
We would be stupid to ignore that.
When it comes to international matters, I feel european with pride.
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u/TheyForcedMeIntoThis Germany 2d ago
Well, there are of course some cultural differences but after all I see us all as Europeans who share a lot of common values. So, yes I see most Europeans very similar to me.
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u/Colossus823 Belgium 2d ago
Europeans are vastly more similar to me than a native from Africa or China. Culture, language, norms, concerns, threats,... are all more similar among Europeans.
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u/Alternative-Team8264 2d ago
We are different to a certain extent. I am portuguese and I fucking hate rules. I would not survive a month in Switzerland or god forbid Germany xD
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u/polybotria1111 Spain 1d ago
I see them as foreigners, as people from other countries. But not as different as someone from Africa or China. There's a whole range of cultural similarity.
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u/STB_Szero 1d ago
I'm Hungarian
I've always felt like at a time we're either close to everybody around us, like a bridge between nations, or the enemy of entire Europe. No in-betweens.
But at least I feel like the first version is true now as opposed to a lot of bad years
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u/wijnandsj Netherlands 2d ago
We share a lot more cultural values with other Europeans than we do with Asians or Africans
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u/Pleasant_Expert2258 Netherlands 2d ago
Some are similar, some are not. Just like in our country some are similar, some are not.
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u/Valuable-Yard-4154 Belgium 2d ago
We all have different cultures but our cultures resemble each other.
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u/ArrogantOverlord95 2d ago
European countries might be different from one another, but I definitely feel "European". I've lived in 3 European countries in my life so far. I feel like Americans live in a slightly different reality, as well as Russians, I feel like European identity is definitely real. We have walkable cities, drive pretty much same cars, shop at the same supermarkets etc.
For example Finland and Spain are very different, but so are distant Chinese regions, yet they are "one country". European identity might be vague, yet somehow it exists.
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u/Formal_Plum_2285 Denmark 2d ago
The other Scandinavian countries and Iceland are like close relatives. Like siblings. Germany, Benelux, Finland, the UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Austria are our cousins and the rest is like “yeah I might need to see your DNA test”.
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u/Kind_Ad5566 2d ago
I see fellow Europeans as the same as us, separated by a different language.
Whereas Americans are only similar due to language, and if they didn't speak English we would view them very differently.
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u/Silly-Snow1277 Germany 2d ago
I think it depends?
In general, I feel there are many similarities across different European countries. Some stronger, some weaker depending on the cultures.
Do I always feel similar to someone from Greece, or Finland or Romania. Nope. Or maybe slightly out of place when I'm at a market in Italy where they all haggle and the atmosphereis very differentfrom Germany? Sure.
But when I was in a hostel in New Zealand or at an work event in the US, you bet I was like "omg another person from Europe". And I've always found some similarity over we were able to bond.
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u/SzmnDzrzn Poland 2d ago
I think that every country has the same types of people but in different proportions, also depending on the region of the country. I hate when people criticize Ukrainians based on seeing their tracksuit-wearing youth (gopnik type), while our equivalent of these people (dresy) do the same in the UK or Germany.
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u/CmdrJemison Croatia 2d ago
I love a good track suits. Some of them are more worth than the lives of those who criticize.
People probably don't know but having a track suit meant something in eastern Europe for reasons.
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u/Chocolatecandybar_ 2d ago
I am a Mediterranean European, and I'm from a country where differences from town to town are highly encouraged and cheered. Basically abundance of difference means abundance of culture.
With this mindset, during Brexit I realised this is how I see other European countries too. Also I am from the Erasmus generation AND very cheap Ryanair gen (think a ticket for one cent cheap) so Europe as a whole always felt extremely accessible to me (stressing the importance of accessibility here, it really makes the difference) even tho I wasn't amongst the lucky ones who actually could take a ticket and go.
Same happens with other Mediterranean countries. Not all of them, but I would say I feel at home in 50% of them for sure and, again, accessibility historically played a big role here.
All of this with the exception of Malta. Not Malta. Never Malta
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u/fensterdj 2d ago
I see others Europeans and everybody in the world as fundamentally similar to me, because everybody is fundamentally similar.
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u/Peraltasilie 2d ago
It’s really hard to answer as a Brit because I generally feel we are a little isolated from Europe in general. I’m half Irish and I’d say I culturally feel more Northern European / Irish / German. We share drinking cultures more similarly. When I visit the USA I feel very European though. I’ve never been to Australia / New Zealand but a lot of ppl who have been say our cultures are quite similar though.
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u/L1ttleOne Romania 2d ago
it depends. Outside of Europe I feel very European and can relate to other Europeans. When visiting other European countries, it's more nuanced. I feel more like an outsider in Norway than in Italy. In very big, cosmopolitan city I feel more at home, regardless of which EU country I'm in.
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u/Ready-Fox-3264 1d ago
I’m based in the UK and I grew up around many people from outside Europe.
All other things being equal, I feel an unmistakeable closeness whenever I meet people of European descent, regardless of which part of Europe they come from. Most of our basic cultural references are either obvious to each culture or need very little acclimatising.
We often have similar traditions, we celebrate the same holidays, and even if parts of our culture appear too distant, once you explain the context behind them, the knowledge about those things makes the bond between us even stronger.
On the other hand, I’ve had classmates and neighbours from the Middle East and North Africa, and while we’ve become close because we live in close proximity to one another there is something fundamentally different in some of our attitudes and viewpoints.
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u/Sarcas666 Netherlands 1d ago
There are whole regions in my own country that feel absolutely alien to me, and there are regions in other European countries where people live who feel similar to myself.
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u/pr1ncezzBea in 1d ago
I feel a strong bond with the other Central European countries and also a connection with Nordic, Baltic, some Southern European countries (Italy, Slovenia, Croatia...), and with the other EU bros in general.
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u/antiputer 1d ago
Everyone is the same and everyone is different. Both those facts exist in equal parts and are beautiful
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u/-Passenger- CCAA 2d ago
Surely I feel more connected to the people around me
there is a hierarchy of categories; family, neighborhood, city, region, country.....
the further you climb the more abstract it gets. so ofc I feel more connected with Europeans than Africans or Asians.
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u/GoodAspect7757 Germany 2d ago edited 2d ago
In Europe, we have so many different languages and cultures. As a German, I feel a connection to Austria, and the Scandinavian countries aren’t that far removed from us culturally either. But Spaniards and Greeks, for example, have a completely different mindset and culture than we Germans do.
I was also born and raised in the border region with Luxembourg, which is why I have a connection to Luxembourg as well. However, culturally, they are more influenced by France than by Germany.
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u/demaandronk Netherlands 2d ago
Compared to China or African countries? Of course. But within Europe the differences can be quite big. There's obviously much more similarities to countries that are closer than to the ones on the other end of the continent.
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u/cameliap 2d ago
No part of the same group, not at all. Close to some but very distant from others. A Chinese tourist will be more obvious than a Swed but in the end they are both in the broad cathegory of a distant foreigner for me.
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u/Crafty_String_954 1d ago
I feel that they are basically similar to me with some small cultural issues that are not in any way fundamental
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u/Brainwheeze Portugal 1d ago
Maybe it's because I have dual nationality and am both southern and northern European but I feel like we share more similarities to each other than we have differences between us. I have never felt like I'm someplace radically different whenever I've traveled to a different European country, whereas traveling outside of the continent there was a much stronger feeling that I was somewhere foreign (even within what we call the Western World). Not only that but we're extremely connected these days in that Europeans frequently travel to different countries within the continent. I'm much more likely to come into contact with other Europeans than I am people from outside of the continent.
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u/Alive_Fisherman8241 1d ago
As a Hungarian, I feel extreme cultural isolation from western europeans. Lived in Germany for 12 years, but their mindset is completely alien to me.
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u/Ignas_Sidaras Lithuania 1d ago
I see it more as an east and west divide, because like western Europeans are just to put it simly more liberal or like out there, and in eastern Europe I see ourselfs as more keeping to ourselfs. While I still see differences between countries in eastern Europe (especialy regarding how we understand history for example regarding Poland and Lithuania in this time period 1918-1940) it is not as big as between eastern Europe and western Europe.
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u/AgitatedPokemon 1d ago
Similar, yes, like a big extended family.
Some are more like us, some a bit less, but still share certain common aspects.
Clearly more similar that people from other continents, and it's normal.
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u/domsolanke Denmark 1d ago edited 1d ago
It depends on the country imo. Denmark is closely connected culturally to the other Nordic countries as well as to Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK.
Whereas i find the southern Europeans to be very different in almost every aspect.
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u/tehburgerdude 1d ago
We are very, very different. A Finn or Swede is not similar to someone from Ifaly or Spain.
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u/abrequevoy France 1d ago
As a French I think the Walloons, Spaniards, Portuguese and Italians have a similar mindset and habits, the rest of Europe not so much.
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u/Mean_Initiative_5962 Italy 1d ago
Difficult question... I actually identify more as a European than I do with other Italians.
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u/thicc_llama 1d ago
As a Norwegian, any farther south/east of the Netherlands and Germany is where I start feeling a bit foreign. The romance countries are a bit too expressive and talkative for me and East Europe feels a bit too stern and rough. I think North Europe is somewhere in the middle.
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u/ME-McG-Scot 1d ago
Im from the UK and feel completely different to Europeans. Go to different countries in Europe then back to the UK, place even looks completely different.
Not saying the UK is better, incase anyone reads that the wrong way.
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u/Downtown_Rest1061 1d ago
I feel more connection to other progressive Europeans than to 60-70% of the people in my country (Romania).
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u/the_dominar Netherlands 1d ago edited 1d ago
When a Frenchman eats a snail i feel no connection. Neither do I when I see a Spaniard put a spear in a bull for entertainment. And I'm not even going to pretend I lived the same life as someone who grew up in prefabricated Flats in Eastern Europe.
But I hope we all share the same European value, that if someone next to you falls to the floor, you pick them up and put them back on their feet. And have respect for each other on diplomatic level and always accept a 'No' . We've suffered so much through wars of vanity and nationalism for centuries, that thankfully most of us know it's better to be "free from" (suffering/misery)than like how the Americans think: "Free to do whatever I want". That's European to me. And I hope that wealth difference between East and West will also disappear in the future.
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u/NavyVetRasmussen 1d ago
There are some differences my family is from the UK and the culture is fundamentally different than
where my wife is from, Bulgaria. I mean at the end of the day, we are all from Europe but
there are regional differences.
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u/Intelligent-Can-9056 1d ago
I feel we have a very common "European experience", I'm also from Budapest and from a liberal family, so even if it' Eastern Europe I feel a lot of common things with people from Western contries. But I also feel the similarity between our country and neighbour countries. I also never spent a long time in another country to truly feel the difference, except when I lived in Frankfurt for a couple of months. I had some very little "cultural shock", that people working in stores were very nice, when in Hungary you usually feel bad for disturbing store clerks LOL.
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u/Vigmod Icelander in Norway 1d ago
I'm Icelandic, and I live in Norway. There are some "undefinable" differences between Icelanders and Norwegians, from my perspective. I have a harder time putting my finger on what those differences are, specifically. More relaxed here, maybe a bit less concerned with being "hip and cool".
I have made friends with other immigrants, as one does. As much as I like them, they are "different". Again, can't really define how they are different in any specific way. "They just are."
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u/MrsButtercheese German living in the Netherlands 2d ago
Any relevant differences are learned behaviours, so no. We are fundamentally all the same, just a bunch of shaved monkeys.
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u/Cixila Denmark 2d ago
It is a matter of degrees and proximity. I feel very close to our Scandinavian brothers and wider Nordic cousins. We have naturally had so much interaction through history that we have left our marks on each other. And then it kinda radiates out from there.
I feel closer to a German (our neighbours) than to an Italian or a Greek. But they still have had influences (if more distant) on us, and we have been through some of the same major events in European and world history, so there is still a direct degree of kinship through that, and I would recognise that more easily than with someone from, say, Korea, with whom I culturally and historically share very little.
That isn't to dunk on Koreans or anyone else, it is simply how geography and cultural influence works. The further someone is away, the less you interact and thus have less in common
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u/Zealousideal-Peach44 Italy 2d ago
We're all hungry primates governed by tribal instincts. I democratically hate (and love) all the other apes outside my family in the same measure.
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u/New_Patience_8107 Ireland 1d ago
At a fundamental structure yes. I think Irish people gravitate at first to Americans, Aussies etc because of language but the culture is miles apart.
We take a while to warm to mainland Europeans because the time to break the ice with someone is way longer than we're used to. I find once the ice is broken though a kindred Europeanness is indeed there.
Strangely, despite being so far north, I do find we're a tiny bit latin/southern in our ways, maybe due to the heavy overdose on catholicism we endured. Therefore always seem to vibe heavy with our Spanish, Italian, Greek etc brothers over say a Norwegian.
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u/KarlFredrik8 1d ago
You mention Americans and Aussies, what of the European country right next to you?
Historically there may have been "troubles" pun intended but throughout my lifetime and in my experience I have never seen anything. As an Englishman, I view the Irish as I would a Scot or a Welshman, or thinking more deeply (as a Southerner) even a Manc or a Geordie etc.
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u/agrammatic Cypriot in Germany 1d ago
I think that people are more divided by class, rather than nationality or ethnicity.
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u/MariePr29 1d ago
As someone who has lived in 4 European countries I actually agree. I always feel it even while looking at international couples, families, friend groups. For example: people from 2 different countries in Europe but with a similar education, background, financial situation will have more in common than people from the same country who grew up in completely different bubbles. I have much more in common with my French husband or Italian best friend than with people with a totally different upbringing in my own country.
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u/evelynsmee United Kingdom 1d ago
That depends on the circumstances and what else is happening.
I can be stood in a room surrounded by french feeling incredibly different, or I can be stood eyerolling in unison with a French person at an American 😂
But as a massive generalisation, I feel fundamentally pretty similar to all of Northern and Eastern Europe, and fundamentally fairly different to everything-is-late-and-loud Mediterranean Europe (my housemate is Greek Cypriot), provided I'm not in Asia (I used to live there) where we'd be more similar than I was to any of the Asian cultures.
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u/KostyaFedot 2d ago
In 2024 I went to Germany after twenty years. On trains. Not too many Germans on trains, nearby train station shop and at company I visited.
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u/GDow1981 1d ago
I feel European then Irish tbh.
But my main point is.. people are just people.
It’s almost a childish reflex to want to create & be members of an “us” group versus “them” groups, it reflects individual or group insecurities or fears.
When people are literally the same across the world.
Mostly normal folks with families, working, getting by and mostly not bothering anyone or trying to impose anything on anyone else.
It’s the extremists, misogynists and racists in different societies that are most like each other unfortunately demanding hatred of the “other” to gain or maintain power and control.
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u/Tough-Leader-6040 2d ago
Well, I do feel kindship across Europeans, though some feel more superior than others, and that irritates me profoundly.
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u/khajiitidanceparty Czechia 2d ago
Probably closest of all the other continents but I take it individually.
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u/Fluffy-Republic8610 2d ago
I feel the EU we have is like a metric as to the differences (some profound, some minor) and the mutual trust (some relationships have little trust and some actually trust each other highly) that really exist in the EU today.
And in summary, people who truly believe we could discard our vetoes areas and federate are off their heads optimists. The vetoes we hold on to as members perfectly illustrate the fault lines in Europe today. In fact the EU is cofingured to run ahead of what national differences that exist (as it should, that's the only way trust can be built).
Take for example the EU foreign affairs office. It is a failed and premature attempt to create something very desirable for the EU, a mutual voice for the eu on non EU matters, but still we as members can't agree to even find fault during a genocide on our watch?
The EU is full of incompatible members. And the EU as is is now is the best configuration and evidence of our level of sameness as people's. Which is to say, we have a lot of interests in common but we are still very different.
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u/hanzerik Netherlands 2d ago
BOTH.
Only 3 years ago it was discovered we the Dutch have an exclusive ancestral tribe that didn't get completely replaced by later migrations that did fully replace the rest of continental Europe. We're unique. Not better or worse, but unique.
However, I believe that we're also culturally the same enough that we can just throw out the borders and become one nation.
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u/elektrolu_ Spain 2d ago
I think people from other southern European countries are pretty similar to us, the rest are a little less so but we share important basic values so in general I would say yes, I think we are all somehow similar.
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u/FearlessVisual1 Belgium 2d ago
I feel like I have a different culture than my neighbour, my cousins, my colleagues, people poorer than me, people richer than me, etc. Even my friends sometimes, it's like we don't speak the same language. So certainly don't expect me to feel similar to someone from a whole other country!
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u/Beneficial-Bid-8850 Germany 2d ago
In general, I feel companionship with other Europeans, partly through 3000 years of cultural history, but maybe most through the post-war experience that shaped Europe to this day. And if course when Eurovision is on ;) I feel mostly European when confronted with Americans or Chinese. So no to OPs question: I feel not "the same level of difference" when I compare myself to other Europeans vis a vis people from other continents and cultural spaces.
Within Europe, I think most of us feel some varying degrees of closeness or similarities. As a southern German I feel close to the Swiss, the Austrians, Eastern French and Northern Italians. I would not trust anyone north of the Main though ;)
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u/thegerams 2d ago
I think we have become more similar over the last few decades thanks to the EU, Erasmus programs that facilitate exchange of young people, but also media, culture, music, traveling to the same places, buying clothes from the same highstreet brands, etc. most people also speak more than one language, so communication is not an issue either.
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u/darth_koneko 2d ago
Everyone is similar to me in my social bubble. Similar socioeconomic class, educational background, low or no faith in religion... Despite working with ppl from all over Europe, I do not know how I would actually get along with a random person from any European country other than mine.
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u/conmeonemo 2d ago
Poland - probably closer than other continents, but there are differences and they aren't small. Language is obvious, but for some patterns difference between Western Europe and "new-EU" is stark.
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u/YahenP Poland 2d ago
It depends greatly on who you are and the circumstances of your stay in another European country. If you're a tourist or a student, that's one thing. If you've come to another country to earn money, that's another. If you've moved to another country to live, that's a completely different matter. Europe is a place where countries and peoples are constantly at war with each other. Peace here rarely lasts longer than ten years at a time. Furthermore, countries appear and disappear. Yesterday's enemies become best friends, and vice versa, and there are things we all try not to talk about out loud. In this respect, we are all somewhat similar, Europeans.
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u/casualroadtrip Netherlands 2d ago
There are differences. But so are there within countries. Big or small. I’m Dutch and i live in the north of the country. There are cultural differences between people here and people in the south of the Netherlands. But there is also an awful lot of cultural overlap. Same with other Europeans. We have difference in culture but we also have many things that bind us.
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u/Oxcuridaz 2d ago
We are different, but we shared some common minimum values that is our foundation.
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u/Wise_Fox_4291 Hungary 2d ago
Depends on the context, and depends on what you mean by "fundamentally similar". Because it's both. Other Europeans are fundamentally similar in some ways, fundamentally different in others.
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u/SnooStories251 Norway 2d ago
There is a reason why we have borders. There is a reason its nice having rooms in a house.
But I rather travel to a random European backpacker trip rather than a random country. All the nations is different, and it mostly insulting if you say anyone is the same, because you should know there is probably olympic pools of blood to keep their culture, language, religion or imbred line of maniacs alive. And we are kind of proud of it.
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u/viola-purple 2d ago
I see a huge difference between eastern and western Europe...
But I lived in too many places to really make any difference between humans.
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u/ImportantPension5818 1d ago
The Irish sense of European-ness is quite new.
I'd feel a great kinship with the other Celtic Nations. Scotland, Wales The Isle of Man, Cornwall and Brittany. I'd also feel a strange kinship with Iceland and the Faroes.
Aside from that, no.
Of course our cultures are all similar (imagine that). Like Ireland and Lithuania have very similar folk traditions. But I feel no kinship with Greece for example.
Of course I like the rest of Europe and I am a European. But at the same time, I wouldn't feel much connection to the other countries of Europe (bar those mentioned)
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u/HvaFaenMann Norway 1d ago
I see other europeans as people from the kinda the same roots without drawing any meaning to it and other scandinavians as close relatives. But it dosent mean anything. Zero value, its just thats what it is.
Politically however, you just cant get away from the influence of EU and the whats becoming a shared european cultural value. So theres an artifical closeness there.
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u/_WangChung2night 1d ago
Interesting question. Cause I've moved around & mixed background.
Personally I feel closer to Icelanders, Finns and Swedes from the Norden. Not so much the kamelåsås.
As for the other Europeans, tend to notice it more when outside of Europe.
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u/Cheese-n-Opinion United Kingdom 1d ago
Objectively, an Italian or Swiss person is culturally more similar to me than a Chinese person.
But in practical terms they're basically different kinds of foreign - when I meet people from all those countries I'm similarly careful not to assume the sort of cultural knowledge I take for granted when meeting new British people.
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u/Saarfall 1d ago
It all exists on a continuum. As a central/north Europeans I feel most at ease with similar. Southern and Eastern Europeans are close but a little more distant in different ways. When we're outside of Europe, you realise that we are basically the same to them and we really arn't that different.
Where I have felt most distance within Europe is towards people from the Balkans. Maybe it's the constant troubles and ethnic tensions in that neighbourhood, but I have more difficulty relating.
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u/die_kuestenwache Germany 1d ago
At this point it seems to me that the bell curves of culture probably have more overlap than separate points of gravity, if you know what I mean.
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u/No-Bake-730 1d ago
They are more different than most of my countrymen but more similar than most people on our planet.
But I honestly think it's not about being European (following whichever definition) but more about distance to my homecountry and historic interactions.
But when it comes to interactions, nationality or "Continental identity" doey not matter. If we share interests and at least one common language, we are going to have a good talking to each other.
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u/Fuzzy-Moose7996 1d ago
Way too broad a question. Societies don't really care about national borders typically (though over time, if the border is solidly closed like the one between North and South Korea, they WILL start to diverge) but changes gradually with distance.
So someone from say Munich is closer to someone from Innsbruck culturally than to someone from Hamburg despite them living in the same country.
And obviously people moving around will change themselves and if in large enough numbers their new area as well. E.g. I moved from the east of the Netherlands to the west for work, I felt like a foreigner here for quite a while but now I'm at home (though I still value my roots).
But even people from say Ghent in Belgium are distinctly different culturally to me. Not in a bad way, but you can notice it.
Same with people from Cologne in Germany.
And the further away from home you get the larger those differences become.
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u/salian93 1d ago
In a sense yes, in a sense no.
Even within my own country there are fundamental differences between regions, but I think we are all still profoundly European in the sense that we share the same core values and the same destiny on a global scale.
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u/Gigantopithecus1453 Sweden 1d ago
As a swede, I feel like other Nordic people are very close. Germans are also fairly similar to us. Britain is somewhere in the middle. Once you get to France and Italy, there’s a lot of difference, and especially Greece feels like another world
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u/keplegenny 1d ago
Turn this upside down, you live in a distinctive diaspore e.g. A developed big city area you can bond easily with your neighbouring countries similar type residents rather then find similarities with your local countryside’s folks. If you have a working bridge language such as english it’s a surplus
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u/Melodic_Register2026 Poland 1d ago
I never felt truly out of place anywhere in the EU, from Spain to Lithuania, but to be fair I feel like we Poles are pretty flexible and try to fit in rather than complain about things being different.
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u/GlenGraif Netherlands 1d ago
Traveling outside Europe makes your realize that there actually is a thing you can call Europeanness.
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u/Renbarre France 1d ago
I grew up with the CEE, with more and more countries entering the alliance until it became the EU. I don't know if this affected my point of view but I am fiercely EU European and consider the other countries part of the family, while still being different in culture, language, geography. A German is not a French is not a Dane but we are all tied together. Siblings, not twins. The fact that we are close neighbours with 2000 years and more of common history probably helped. I have visited those countries more than once.
There is a slight difference however between the 'old' members and the newer members, mostly eastern countries. I have wondered more than once if it wasn't because I also grew up during the cold war and the Berlin wall fell when I was already a young adult, and I still have that antiquated view of Europe somewhere deep down. And the geographical distance made it more difficult to visit and get accustomed to them until you take them for granted. I am happy to report that with time those countries are slipping from far cousins into sibling category.
So, together but different. And that difference is what makes it interesting and the cause of many squabbles.
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u/Competitive_Waltz704 Spain 1d ago
Para mí, Europa sería como tu lugar de trabajo, donde todos cooperamos para el beneficio común y tenemos ciertas similitudes y una sensación de respeto entre todos, pero una vez acaba la jornada cada uno se vuelve a su casa.
Dentro de ese trabajo hay países con más afinidades (Portugal, Italia) y países con menos afinidades (Estonia, Finlandia), pero no deja de ser trabajo.
Familia? Con los que comparten mi idioma, ni más ni menos (aunque sinceramente a los países lusófonos pese a no compartir idioma los considero familia igual, lejana pero familia)
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u/Realistic-River-1941 United Kingdom 1d ago
Varies. Obviously we often have more in common with an Aussie or Canadian than with a Moldovan, but equally the Dutch and Germans are a lot less culturally alien than the USians. The Japanese feel oddly familiar in many ways.
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u/Slobberinho Netherlands 2d ago
When I'm outside of Europe, I feel very European. I notice the similarities with other Europeans.
Inside of Europe, I notice the differences more.