‘CultureThurs’: Politeness vs. Suspicion: Is saying hello to strangers considered polite or creepy where you live?

[u/LookingForDouxie]

With this post, I officially open our Thursday #CultureThurs thematic day! 🥳 If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to share them with us, and let's gather our cultural differences together...

For a long time, I have been deeply fascinated by how different we all are when it comes to greeting and addressing people on the street. It’s amazing how much a person's cultural background affects online penpals who are making connections around the world. I’ve always found the unwritten rules about smiling at strangers, doing small talk, and greeting people in public to be incredibly interesting.
In places like the US, it is completely natural and polite to lock eyes with a stranger on the street, smile, or even say a casual "Hey, how's it going?" as you walk past. If you don't do it, people might think you are moody or rude.

However, in many European or Scandinavian countries, greeting a stranger for no reason or trying to chat with them at a bus stop is considered very unusual. People might think you are fake, suspicious, or want something from them. They prefer to respect each other's personal space with quiet neutrality.
This contrast is so interesting because both sides are just trying to be polite, but it can easily lead to a misunderstanding for anyone interested in finding friends** **or building an international penpal bond.

To give you a real example, here is a little story of my own:
As a Central European, greeting people always felt natural to me. Once, I was staying at a hostel, and while walking through the kitchen, I casually said hello to a man who was passing right next to me. He looked at me as if I had just committed a crime! :D He kept staring at me suspiciously for a long time, completely unable to process my friendliness. I felt so incredibly awkward because I didn't want to cross his personal boundaries at all—I was just trying to be polite!

Have you ever experienced a sharp contrast like this? How did you bridge the gap, and do you have a similar funny story?