Q: I recently moved here and have found the locals to be very unfriendly. Any idea why the people here are so jaded?
A: Vancouver is a very divided city, by economics and area. People in the West side look down on people in the East side, and people in the East side don't trust the West side, only they are united against Surrey. Historically it was a very British city that still seems to be affected by those old world class divisions, even though today about half the population are non european immigrants. Many of them are from Hong Kong which probably has a similar culture. My father was born and raised there and I lived there for a total of 20 years of my life. It also has the problems of any big city where you learn that being friendly with strangers sometimes means attracting crazy people who want to abuse you. When I moved to a small town where people smile at strangers for no reason, at first I thought they wanted to roll me for my wallet, but I got used to it. Then when I went back to Vancouver to visit, people where much friendlier! I'm certain it's because I was more smiling and open, and people do react to that. Not everyone, but sometimes if you make the extra effort it does work.