Are Americans from the Northern States generally so rude and ignorant?

Question

Living in Africa, I've met some tourists, missionaries and business people from the States. Basically the nicest people, generally seem to be Southerners, while the arrogant, LOUD, people who want everything for nothing, seem to be from the Northern states.

Answer 1

I've lived in the north (midwest, really...Ohio and Michigan) and south (Virginia and Georgia) United States, and the kinds of people are different. I wouldn't call them rude, per se. I've found that northerners are generally more "brisk" with their comments and replies, and life up north is more hurried/fast paced. For example, if you were at the grocery store in the south and you told the cashier "Thanks." she'd probably say, "You're welcome, have a nice day!" In Michigan, for example, if you said Thanks to the cashier, she'd say, "Yep!" It's not meant to be rude...it's just their way of saying thank you. I was taken so aback by this when I first moved to Michigan (from Virginia). I thought these people were incredibly rude. I was raised in the south, where people generally say please, thank you, call you ma'am or sir, hold doors for you, etc. and to go to a place like this was a huge change. Eventually after living there a while, I started saying "Yep" too. This is just one small example of many.

Overall, I wouldn't say northerners are rude...just, like I said, more brisk and curt with their replies, way of life, etc.

Answer 2

Never generalize I have lived in and visited most parts of the USA while there is Southern hospitality I would have to say that there are a lot of Yankees that are quite polite --- though I do believe there is something about living up in the northern part of the US that brings something out in the people here, maybe it's the weather differences between the south and north

its nicer down south
its colder in the north

more people are out and about in all seasons down south and some people up north basically hybernate during the cold weather

Answer 3

Well as a former Northerner and now a Yankee in the south I'm afraid to say your are right. Southern folks are much more laid back, less of a rush and generally more pleasant. Northern folk seem to be always in rush and want things NOW. I guess because if they don't keep moving in the winter months they would freeze and it just carries on throughout the seasons?

Answer 4

Well, I can't speak for Northers per se, but I can speak for southerns as opposed to people from the west (Arizona, California, et al). I can tell you, southerners beat the westerners hands-down.

I grew up in North Carolina, moved to AZ in 1996 at age 27, and noticed right away the lower levels of friendliness. At first I thought it was a big-city thing, as I had lived in small town and was now in Tucson with its 500,000 population. But as I noticed that other former southerners living there--no matter how small/large a city they had lived in previously--were friendlier than the others and agreed with my observations, I realized it was a western-states thing.

For one, the people there will get very upset if you visit them and didn't call and arrange it with them first, "drop-ins" are considered VERY offensive, and I think that's wrong of them--their right to do, but still wrong. By comparision, in NC, you could be driving around and find yourself near someone's home and just drop in and say "hi" for a minute or two, and were made to feel welcome. That wasn't considered "violating boundaries" or whatever, and it had the effect of making you feel that others welcomed your presence in their life rather than considering a nuisance to be tolerated.

Also, if your car stalled and you needed nothing more than a jumpstart to be on your way, good luck in the west--even if you have your own cables. In one case a guy offered to push me off the road where I was stalled, and when I showed him the cables and told him he could jump-start me just as quickly and it would help a lot more, he adamently stated "I don't care about helping you, I just want you out of the way." I told him what he could do with his help--I mean, for crying out loud, I was on the way to buying a new battery, would it have killed him?

All I can say about the Northern states is that my mother (also a southerner obviously) now lives in Ohio as she re-married in 1993, and has observed that they are nowhere near as nice as the southerners. So maybe the OP is on to something.

Answer 5

You've met a total of how many people from the States?

Please don't generalize an entire region by just a few people.

Answer 6

It relies upon the place interior the North you're. In manhattan city, all and sundry is many times busy, and various of them may be rude in case you appear to be enormously stressful or incompetent. yet few of them would be ignorant. In upstate manhattan and Montana, all and sundry is greater comfortable, and are not as busy. yet they may be blind to international affairs, as such issues do no longer undertaking them. "Ignorant" is the incorrect observe to describe American Northerners, till you misconstrued the which skill of the observe to intend that they typically forget approximately you. using the observe properly, they are not greater or much less ignorant than the familiar citizen interior the country. in fact, they typically tend to be greater knowledgeable than people who stay farther south.

Answer 7

OH MY!!!

Why darn it all, I am from the NORTH Auntie Em.....

WE ARE in Kansas, and they said we are rude and ignornant...

Golly gee, what should we do/??

The states of the North are, from east to west: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas.

I TOTALLY disagree with you except for these states:

NEW YORK, some parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey!!

Answer 8

I'm from Connecticut, and I will tell you, people are quite rude up here. For anyone who's going to flame my comment, I'll let you know I've lived here in CT all my life, so I can honestly tell you. YES< there are SOME nice people around here, but most are rude with their noses up their ***.

Answer 9

It depends who you meet. I live in the north and I've always met people are nice. I guess it depends where you went and maybe the time of day, like morning commute?

Answer 10

No. I believe we treat people the way we want to be treated. I will say I have met rude people but more good than bad ones.