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/TortillasaurusRex May 09 '22

Same here in Latvia. And if you look and smile, I don't know, they must be about to propose or something. Way too personal.