I’ve heard from a lot of expats who reluctantly have to be relocated to Europe that it could be difficult to adapt back to life in European cities again, some told me they got ‘’spoiled’ by the feeling of safety in Seoul, Tokyo Shanghai or like Hongkong, also the convenience such as accessibility to supermarkets, convenient stores etc. There could be more but that’s all I can recall.
So did you find it difficult or challenging once you go back to live in Europe, after experiencing Asian cities for several years, if not, i would be interested to know why as well.
Haven’t moved back to Europe yet, but when visiting I realised how big the difference is, mostly because of the safety / how you have to carry yourself when out and about. There’s so much “minor” or latent violence that’s accepted as normal where I grew up, I didn’t even think about it until I’d lived elsewhere.
In Seoul you don’t have to watch your bag or laptop in a cafe, you don’t have to check behind you while using an ATM, you don’t have to check your surroundings before pulling your phone out of your pocket, you don’t have to keep checking your pockets and guard for pickpockets, you don’t have to keep tabs on which guys at the pub are likely to be looking for a fight, you don’t have to cross the road when a group of young lads (even teenagers) are approaching, you don’t worry about whether you locked the doors, when you hear a noise at night you don’t have to grab a makeshift weapon and clear the flat because nobody is breaking in. Until I left, I didn’t realise just how much mental energy I had put into thinking about safety and violence.
Living in the UK the only one of those things I ever do is lock my door when I either go out or go to bed. The others are just not something I ever really think about 99% of the time. Maybe if I’m in a really sketchy area or a large city I’ll be more careful but day to day is not an issue for me.
What cities are you visiting in europe? Ive never done any of those things here either.
It wasnt always like this in europe
Just make sure you move to the Netherlands when you come you’ll be fine
Are you male or female?
I’ve heard a lot of things about south korea and upskirting/harassment?
less scary than most things. especially as scot
This is a minor issue
I’m a man - It’s a good point, and I think that’s the exception to the whole “East Asia is super safe” idea. I can’t say whether it’s better or worse here compared to Europe though, and would like to hear from any women who’ve lived on both sides. I know women who’ve been attacked in both countries. Drink spiking / rape is a problem here but I’m not sure about the comparison. It’s underreported here too.
Without minimising harassment and sexual assault, women living in Asia still benefit from the overall difference in safety / violence culture - plenty of Asian women are shocked to be robbed and even physically assaulted when visiting Europe. It’s not only perpetrated by men, some of the young women are just as feral…
The thing is, having lived in Paris, London, Shanghai, Tokyo, i must say my concerns are mainly as i stated, i got spoiled by life in Tokyo especially. The type of safety im talking about is what some people have already mentionned. In Paris you get cat call all the time, both in London and Paris people with mental issues can aggress you, those kind of encounters happen a lot in metro/underground, not to mention thievery in the streets, or just accidently looking into people’s eyes when they get triggered and immediately become aggressive and want to confront you. Then there’re the shady/sketchy areas which, compared to the « sketchy » areas in Tokyo for example, it’s just another level. So im not even going to all the rape or murder stuff, but day to day basic safety and freedom of walking in the street, just going on about my own thing… im very worried to not be able to get used to how it is in europe.
It’s a similar experience to that of people from 3rd world countries that emigrate to western Europe. As you mention, you’re not 100% safe, but it’s a world of a difference.
Hello fellow Dubliner I’m guessing!
I live in Canada and I don’t do all the things in your second paragraph.
Which part of Canada is in Europe?
Doesn’t matter. I thought to pitch in too, politely ;).
Are groups of teenagers in Europe often considered violent/harassing?
Depends on the town and the teenagers but random violent assault isn’t unheard of, they have some serious cultural/behavioural/psychological issues. They know the police are stretched too thin to respond to calls so they run riot.
Someone glanced at them? Fair game for a wind up or pretext for a “fight” Didn’t glance at them? Doesn’t matter, one of them was in the mood anyway…
I have lived in different European countries and have never done any of that, except locking the door when leaving the house for extended periods (the rest of the time you can just close the door, unless you have a dumb handle that can be opened from outside without a key, and even then I didn’t bother locking it if I was inside) and maybe avoiding leaving valuables unguarded in a cafe (I’ve left stuff unguarded before, but I wouldn’t do it in every cafe in every town). For pickpockets, I don’t keep valuables in back pockets, but it’s not something I would want to do anyway, and I don’t actively worry about pickpockets.
That’s a good experience, I hope it continues! There are better and worse areas of course.
Having a door handle that cannot be opened from the outside without a key is considered locking the door, at least in Japan. Probably Korea too.
Also, using the rear wheel obstructor built into the bike frame is also considered locking your bike in Japan. Actually locking your bike to a sturdy object is considered weird.
There was also an absurd fashion trend of having really long wallets that stick out of your back pocket. I can’t imagine such a fashion trend working in any other part of the world.
People regularly leave valuables unguarded in cafes, in even well known sketchy neighborhoods in Tokyo. Sketchy neighborhood means “you can probably buy sex” and “there’s a lot of gambling” not “if you leave your laptop out on the cafe table when you use the bathroom it will be stolen.”
Yeah, I’m not saying there isn’t more danger of property crime in Europe (although it depends on where in Europe; where I live now in Germany no one locks bikes in the inner courtyard in the small housing complex where I live, accessible freely from the street, for instance, and when I lived in the Netherlands I didn’t lock my bike at all when stopping at small towns and rural areas, although I generally did in cities); I’m saying you don’t have live continuously worrying about this stuff. I don’t worry about locking the front door, or about having valuables easily accessible, or about my surroundings; I just keep house keys on me and pull the door shut when I leave, and I keep valuables where I’d keep them anywhere in the world. I go where I need to go, even in places considered sketchy and even at night, with no particular worry. The level of alertness you need to have in Europe is grossly overstated by some.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/rankings/safe
Southkorea don’t even appear on lists for safe countries, but all Lists have atleast 7 european countries in the Top Ten. Talking about Europe as unsafe is far from Reality. Maybe you talk about Belarus?
I can’t take that ranking seriously, it has Ireland and Australia safer than Japan, and Italy, France and the UK safer than South Korea. It’s just a survey of random people’s feelings - apparently people who don’t know the countries in question
For example here’s another survey showing a massive difference: https://www.numbeo.com/crime/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United+Kingdom&country2=South+Korea&city1=London&city2=Seoul&tracking=getDispatchComparison
And here’s a comparison of crime rate numbers showing most of your top twenty safest countries as less safe than most East Asian countries
https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/KOR/south-korea/crime-rate-statistics
This is all on average of course
Wow where are you from
Man the UK is such a shithole… luckily these problems are non existent in most of Europe.
And the amount of money that goes into security too. I spent thousands in security and safety which I would never spend in Japan because there’s just no need