Every country in Europe has its own culture. Their languages and traditions are different from each other. Even their gestures aren’t the same and something that may be considered offensive in one of them may be a normal thing in another. The accents are different too, in fact accents are different from region to region, not just from one country to another. But someone who has never been to Europe might end up confusing the traditions of all the European countries. Or they may think that it is not something deep they have to research to learn all about it.
People in the Western countries don’t give much thought to culture the way Eastern people do and that’s why they often end up making mistakes and offending people. When you are traveling, it is important to know how to behave in a foreign land. You are in their country you must learn to respect their wishes too. If you don’t, they might ignore it out of politeness but you won’t prove your status as a good tourist. When people go to other countries for studying and they have to fit in to survive their academic years, they pay more attention to such things. In many cases, they learn the local language and read up about the culture to be as respectful as they can. They want to be accepted and that’s why they act like that too.