Biggest cultural shock you have come across?

by = my

Thanks @user1471523870

The 'filthy' was a 'self depreciating Brits' culture thing .

I think it bidets and bidet towels were the norm in the UK, they would generate some cracking 'tradesperson arriving at the home of a MNer and immediately going to take a dump' threads - AIBU to not want to wash by builder's shitty bidet towel sort of thing.

Just everything about Detroit. It's like the rest of the USA has decided it's had its day and just left it to rot quietly.

The northern parts of Florida. It's proper deep South, very republican, small quite insular communities and a roadside church every half a mile. All I knew of Florida until then was Orlando and Disney!

A lighter hearted one, when we were in California travelling around on Greyhound buses, I was amazed and amused that some men wore stetsons, and not ironically. I mean, it is sensible headwear in the heat, but I hadn't expected to see grown men in 'cowboy hats'.

I find the armed police in most countries culturally shocking - it always makes me nervous when police officers have visible weapons,

That Ireland didn't have a cervical screening programme when I visited 11 years ago with Jo's Trust.

That's odd.

I work in this area. Ireland certainly had a cervical cancer screening programme when I worked there in 2001-2002 (national registry, call up for screenings, etc.) The only difference I noticed between there and here is that it was far easier to get an appointment there.

I don't think I ever came across a screening programme when I worked in the US though. With the introduction of ObamaCare, insurers were required to cover recommended preventive services such as mammograms, Pap smear. However, ObamaCare now look like becoming a thing of the past with the vote to dismantle ObamaCare last week.

Living in the States ( south) was a culture shock. Everything from the massive Big Gulps

This reminds me - New Orleans and the free drinking of alcohol in public. Specifically those sort of hole-in-the-wall kiosk things where you can get a Hurricane Cocktail or any kind of cocktail and then walk around drinking it - in the same way you'd get a portion of chips or a kebab (or visit a cashpoint) in the UK.

It's very bizarre - all the more so given that anywhere else in the USA if you have more than a glass of wine they think you are a borderline alcoholic.

We went to The Gambia on honeymoon (27 years ago- gosh I'm old). Got chatting with plenty of people, and we were struck with the fact that the unspoken "social distance " for conversation with strangers is clearly a lot closer for Gambians.

So we would be slowly retreating to re-establish our comfortable social distance, and whoever we were speaking to would be advancing to re-establish his/her comfortable social distance. You'd end the conversation some way away from where you started it

Frith - I don't think that is an official camp. There was a problem last year with people trying to cross into Switzerland without papers and, unsurprisingly, they got stopped at the border in Como.

The sheer size of people in California. I don't mean fat I mean tall. Everyone seemed to be a foot taller than me and I'm 5'6". It wasn't unusual to see men of 6'10". Most of the women were 6' tall. I felt tiny. Plus the poverty in south central LA. Armed guards at the hotel entrances.

Agree with a PP who said that Amsterdam was seedy. The contents of the shop windows on the main walkways was shocking (would be illegal here), plus the women in the windows. You could feel the testosterone in the air at night.

Mexico in a non-resort area. The poverty was striking. Dirt floors, hardly any furniture. No possessions at all really.

The chain smoking in the Czech republic.

Reverse culture shock coming back to the UK after Italy, I was surprised at how many places (restaurants, hotels) refused to allow children. Also my parents' neighbour actually told me off for taking my 4 year olds for a walk after dinner at 8.30ish and said they should be in bed!

A refugee camp in Como, Italy. Was right there when we got off the train.

Lived in Paris as a child and travelled to London regularly. First time I went to the loo alone in Britain (maybe 3 years old?) at a friend's house I had no idea how to flush as every loo I'd come across in France has the push button on the top of the cistern rather than the handle to pull down.

Another toilet one: we moved from Paris to London when I was 15 and I was shocked that everyone ate a sandwich for lunch at school and even more shocked that students were allowed out of class during lessons for a wee.

Also was confused that Londoners walk on the right in tube stations but on the left everywhere else.

Living in Spain now and was surprised that many people deliberately feed young children extra salt especially in summer. I'm not a nutritionist though so it may well be beneficial when the children sweat a lot.

My biggest shock was the way the British management was treating polish workers in Poland. That was some years ago.
I remember what the OP describes too but can't say I found it a shock (maybe because I've lived in enough places to not be as an iked by what is basically poverty).
The sense of being superior form the British people there though... that was a true shock to the system and one I didn't recover from (I left very quickly because of that)

redexpat should i reconsider a trip to copenhagen? I havent booked it yet. Wouldnt want to expose me and the kids to that kind of stuff

Living in the States ( south) was a culture shock. Everything from the massive Big Gulps to the Chaleston where all the black people lived on one side of the town and were really quiet and kept their heads down. Noticeablely different to Europe.

In Austria, the sauna and changing rooms were mixed and naked. Once you got used to the idea, it was curiously liberating.

And in reply to a PP, yes I have experienced service with a smile many times in France!

The lack of respect for cultural monuments in Egypt. People climbing up the pyramids, being encouraged (for a tip) to cross barriers to get a closer look (and touch if we wanted) of hieroglyphs In the valley of the Kings. The millions of empty plastic bottles in the desert. (Of course the grinding poverty was shocking, but we had been prepared for that somewhat. Giving some kids a bottle of coke and men coming and taking it away for themselves. That got us really cross)

Oh, and the poison gas air in China. To be fair Beijing was cleaned up a lot for the Olympics, but I did a 2 hour transfer to Tianjin port for a cruise, and could barely see through the yellow-grey air surrounding the car

Also the roadside box-like shacks in Vietnam. In my ignorance I first though they were some sort of storage areas, but no - there were whole families living in them

Food market in Vietnam - cages crammed full of kittens to be sold as food... I'm a cat lover :(

The male hand holding/displays of friendship/sitting on each other's laps was something I found really odd in Pakistan.

Being a 12 year old Brit abroad, I was mortified when my similar-aged cousin insisted on walking arm-in-arm down to the village square in Sicily (in the 1970s).

I was therefore intrigued to learn (on "QI" I believe) that it used to be a very English custom, and that men - soldiers even - used to link arms to walk in Hyde Park in Victorian times.

I really don't think you can damn a nation on the strength of a dodgy bar tender!

I didn't.

When I came back from volunteering in a Southern African country at the time of Apartheid - it was isolated so few Western goods got in and lots of shortages. I went to the supermarket in the UK and came out again without buying anything because I was so overwhelmed by choice.

people assuming an unmarried woman in Greece was a prostitute