I'm surprised that many people think neighbours are actually friends, not just friendly people. People in the USA live far from each other. And houses are separated by yards and fences.

My question is: do you interact with your neighbours often? How? Do people always know each other in the same community?

It seems like the American students generally feel positive about their neighbours, while the French students had far more words with negative connotation.  "Nuisance," "desaccord," etc.  As Ye mentioned, people in the USA live far away from each other.  I've found, the closer the neighbours, the more problems there are.  My home is very far from my closest neighbours, and we get along very well - but when we are home, we can't even see each other from our houses.  People who live in cities have to interact with their neighbours far more often, and it seems that this leads to a more negative feeling toward them.

From what I've seen of France, it is a very urban country.  However, when you get outside the cities, do people feel differently about their neighbours?

En fait beaucoup de nos réponses sont, je pense, influencée par la vie que nous avons ici aux Arts où tous nos voisins sont nos amis. Néanmoins cela n'est pas forcément faux si on le transpose à la vie non-étudiante. en fait en général les voisins ne sont pas des amis a proprement parlé, mais disons que les relations sont amicales et qu'en générale on connait forcément plus ou moins bien ses voisins.

Dans les villages, on ne croise pas forcément souvent ses voisins car comme pour vous quand on a un jardin, on risque peu de les croiser.... Mais bon, ce n'est pas pour autant que l'on ne peut pas ller toquer à leur porte pour leur passer le bonjour!

Et si l'on parle parfois de nuisance ou autre, c'est que (comme vous je pense) on a tous un voisin qui a un chien qui aboie pour un rien, ou qui passe la tondeuse alors que vous étiez tranquillement dehors....

Je pense que la différence de jugement se fait sur le lieu de vie : ville ou campagne ! Dans la dernière chacun connait ses voisins, "grandit avec eux" dans le sens  où même si il ya un peu plus de distance, ils changent pas ou peu... En ville, on a des voisins on pourrait faire pareil mais vu l'anonymat général, on les croise seulement ...on a des amis qui sont peut etre quelques portes plus loin.

Eric parle de "ville/campagne" mais je dirai surtout que c'est immeuble/maison la grande différence!!

Et notre vision des voisins est apparement plutôt celle d'un immeuble, ok on peut être ami avec eux mais on se plaindra forcément un jour ou l'autre qu'ils font trop de bruit ... (chien fête musique aspirateur ou autre à des heures impossibles ^^)

Je crois bien qu'il y a plus de français que d'américain qui vivent en appartement!

I think the idea of living an apartment/house might be correct. Most of the people I know lived in a house, and there was indeed the idea of everyone in their own yard. It indeed does solve the annoying neighbors making noise problems (well, sometimes). On the other hand, people are sometimes less likely to socialize as a result. I think we associate apartment life more with living within the inner city (in a bachelor/bachlorette pad), but most families live on the outskirts of a city or in small towns.Maybe people who live in apartments could give their viewpoints.

I'm also surprised that we gave our answers considering we too live in dorms. In general, I think people get along with other people in the dorm, since this is where you normally make most of your friends. Noise can become a problem, though I think what makes neighbors in a dorm hate each other the most is sharing a bathroom (at least in my dorm). It may say a lot about us that we think of the negative aspects of neighborly life more than the positive ones!

I felt that the responses on both sides were very positive.  The biggest complaints seem to be noise, but other than that, most connections to neighbors were those of friendship and community.  While I think that the apartment/house argument may be partially correct, I feel that the neighborhood/community that one lives in determines interactions with neighbors more so.  Having a central community which binds the neighborhood or apartment or wherever tends to lead to close relationships, whereas a lack of this community leads to disagreements over petty things usually. That's my opinion at least.

I was tickled to find that Americans often associate neighbors with fences.

Fences!

We are so driven by suburban sprawl and the golden acquisition of a green grassy plot of property that we must clutch it so tightly and overtly claim what belongs to us with the use of an exclusive, unfriendly fence.

While French students may consider the entire continent of Europe to be their neighbors, American students seem slightly narrower in perspective -- we only think of the people who live next door.

I agree. I was surprised to see that Europe and Italy were two words mentioned because as Americans, we generally tend to think about our immediate neighbors rather than those of our country.