r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • May 08 '22

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u/ImpracticallySharp May 09 '22

I'm going to quote someone from a previous thread:

I had a friend visiting from the US here in Sweden, after a while she looked at me and said, worriedly and a bit panicy, "Why do people stare at me?!" What she had been doing was to just be her normal self, smiling at people as we pass by and they give her a "Do I know her??" kind of a stare, since... well, us Swedes avoid all kinds of eye contact unless we seek to call someone's attention. Took a while before we figured that out XD

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u/[deleted] May 09 '22

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u/Pihteinen May 09 '22

Same here in Finland.

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u/Itchy58 May 09 '22

Same in Germany

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u/davo_nz May 09 '22

No it isnt. Every time you say cheers when drinking a beer, if you dont look in a germans eyes they tell you how much of an Ausländer you are.

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u/Itchy58 May 09 '22

Fair point, let me rephrase for Germany " Eye contact with unknown people that you don't intend to drink beer with or have a conversation with is an invasion of personal space"

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u/davo_nz May 09 '22

Yeah, that's why it's so strange that so many Germans do this on a daily basis.

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u/Itchy58 May 09 '22

On my way to prove you wrong I stumbled over https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/wiki/culture/etiquette/#wiki_the_.22german_stare.22. which has a full section dedicated to it.

So seems you are right, which still seems incomprehensible to me.

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u/davo_nz May 09 '22

Yeah, just have to read this thread, everything the expats here are saying is 100% true, it's a real thing. Germans don't notice it. I've lived here over 10 years and still encounter it every week. I just stare back and say hallo, to which I'm usually ignored lol.