Biggest cultural shock you have come across?

Seeing Masai people asleep on the side of the road in Tanzania - I thought they were dead or ill, but they walk huge distances and when they are tired just lie down to sleep on the dusty roadside. Also in Tanzania people living in tiny huts with no facilities but with children emerging looking totally pristine in their school dresses and very white socks, no idea how they achieved it.

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

I lived in the US for five years and have visited countless times. I can honestly say that I think that American people are generally more polite than the British and definitely politer than Europeans! Has anyone ever experienced "service with a smile" in France?!

There are a lot of homeless in certain US cities. I had a long discussion with a homeless worker in Seattle. He told me that the ones on the street are nearly all drug addicts as shelters will not allow drug use there. Also the number of homeless in Portland has rocketed as homeless from other cities have been drawn there because of the help offered. When I was there last year all the hipsters were getting mighty fed up with it as whole streets had tents along them.

English children having dinner at 5pm, and to bed at 6pm! I am still shocked by that one.

I personally find that odd too. I know people who put their kids to bed at dinner time and then complain that they wake up super early.

My mum said I slept through the night almost immediately because she put me down late, after my last bottle. Then as I got older I still had a bedtime that would be considered late to many people, but I slept through until breakfast.

Just thinking about the driving in India makes me want to put my head between my knees and take deep breaths. We were driving on a modern dual carriageway with a solid concrete median. Every so often there was a break so that traffic cross to the other direction. So traffic joining from a side road and wanting to go right should have gone left and then crossed to the other direction at a break in the barrier. But what they actually did was turn right and travelled the wrong direction in the fast lane until they got to a break in the barrier. It was terrifying, we were in an old-fashioned Ambassador car (for 'atmosphere', I would have preferred the atmosphere of an armoured truck personally) and we kept meeting oncoming tractors and lorries that would have crushed us like a bug. The sides of the road was packed with burnt out and broken up vehicles.

farandole The male hand holding/displays of friendship/sitting on each other's laps was something I found really odd in Pakistan. The linking of pinky fingers and swinging away was commonplace.

Also in Pakistan, the goats and chickens on public transport, random males 'pinching' a female derrière in the marketplace, families on scooters/motorbikes.

“The worst I came across were where there was a trough that ran under all the cubicles - so you could see everything floating past.”

Sounds like the loos at the campsite at Leeds Festival

“English children having dinner at 5pm, and to bed at 6pm! I am still shocked by that one.”

I am English and think this is weird. We never did this with DD. For a start she was never sleepy at 6 (or 7 or 8 or even 9pm sometimes). We have always eaten our evening meal together as a family.

“So many people do live with many to a room, or family of 4 in a 1 bedroom flat etc too. Some of these are definitely the norm to some in the UK.”

I bet they wouldn’t choose to live like that if they could afford something better. I can see why it happens in London because rents are so high. I know that in Sheffield there are areas where people live like this – mainly where there are a lot of immigrants.

Yes, lack of central heating in houses in Australia. They really need it in autumn and winter! Especially as the older houses there tend to be very draughty. I was always freezing!

Then there was the bar tender who tried to give my ex husband change for a ten dollar bill when he had paid with a fifty. We'd been warned about that so were really on it. Loads of bluster and till slamming. Then the waitress that huffed and puffed and moaned because we came into the diner at 6 am and you know actually ordered breakfast because it was open at 6 am. Also we were in a restaurant where you had to turn a sign round on the table when you needed service and they'd see it and stop, that sign clearly pissed her right off and she made it quite clear that it did. Maybe we were just unlucky though.

@Barbara, sorry I didn't mean in any way to imply Brits are filthy! I should think before typing sometimes but I genuinely wrote my 'shocking' discoveries as genuine cultural diversities.
In fact I not only no longer use a bidet, but haven't even got one when I renovated my home. I just take a shower in the morning and use the small shower head on the bath during the day.
The standard way of using a bidet is when you still have your knickers down, you just jump on it (it's normally next to the toilet) and you dry with a special 'bidet towel', which is just a small towel (that you put in the laundry bin straight after). Or you take off one leg of your trousers
You do it only if at home and it takes seconds.

A communal trough for a toilet in China.

Spitting bones onto the floor in China.

Spitting randomly in China.

People leaving plastic packaging on things to make them look newer. For years. Eg inside of car. In China.

Nowhere else I've been has been as shocking. I lived there 10 years ago. Would love to go back!

Beggars in India.

The more I see of the world, the more I realise that it's not "them", it's us Brits who are the odd ones out...

No OP, that is not the norm in Poland. It was in early 1970s but not today. Especially not near Kraków. Were you with Dr Who when you visited?

How rude, abrupt and arrogant every single customer facing person I met in the U.S was. Seriously, so quick to move to confrontation before peaceful resolution. And they don't want to listen, they want you to follow instructions and STFU and will shout you down till you do. God knows what they teach them on their training courses because it seems to be "You're fabulous, you're in charge, fuck the customer."

this is completely the opposite of my experience in 20 years in the US. Every single customer facing person I have dealt with whether it be phone company, waiters, hairdressers, etc etc has been helpful and pleasant. You had a distinctly unusual experience.

meglet

Those gaps around the doors in toilet cubicles in the USA.

Don't you mean people can see you from all angles! I really don't get it. Why would you design a toilet door like that? And have it EVERYWHERE???? WHY?? Do they have no sense of privacy?

Another thing that I had to learn (not exactly culture shock but different) was that the flush handle is low in those kind of office/public toilets because it is designed to be used by your foot for hygiene reasons - so no one has to touch the toilet handle with their hand. I was "aaaahhh! I get it!"

Where do I begin?

Afghanistan, the Kabul Co-Op, a shack shop with legs of lamb hanging in 30C temps.

Southern state in the US where I asked a gas station attendant how far the highway Junction was. His reply was, 'I don't know, I live up in the mountains', less than half a mile a long the road I found the junction.

China, I don't know where to begin, but it was a long time ago.

Malaysia was much cleaner and friendlier than I had anticipated, especially in the markets where I loathe being hassled.

Italy, prostitutes hanging around in lay-by's ready to entertain the next passing punter.

MsGame

That's unfortunate. Any time we've eaten in the US the wait staff have fallen over themselves to give excellent service. I was once served a bad meal and everything I'd ordered (including drinks and sides) was taken off the bill with a massive apology.

I will agree that I've experienced shitty attitude from people working in retail. I've never had a nice experience in Century 21, for example and I've shopped there many times.

CrunchySeaweed

I have seen the chain gangs too in the US.

Also our neighbor being so happy that he and his 12 year old son got doe tags that year because they really needed the meat.

Joining a gym in Berlin and finding out that the rule in the (mixed) spa was no swimwear or towels - but woebetide anyone who went in barefoot!

Our tuk-tuk driver taking me to a doctor's surgery in Sri Lanka, which was absolutely packed, with people sitting on the floor, standing... People insisting I go ahead in front of them all. I didn't obviously and left. Managed to pick up what I needed from a chemist.

Also in Sri Lanka, people living in actual huts on the beach. I knew they did I suppose, but it was weird seeing it.

I actually have been to restaurants in the US quite a few times and have found them abrupt there too. In a bar in New York the waitress had a screamy row with the manager and then came and shouted at us because we'd tried to order our drinks at the bar not realising it was table service only.

On a boat in the Mekong in Laos we passed a dead body floating in the water. It had obviously been there a few days. The captain of the boat just kind of shrugged.

I had a number of experiences in SE Asia that really showed me that life can be cheap there.

Having visited loos in Costco in the US and the UK, I can say the UK's are slightly better.

megle whatever you do then, avoid the toilets in Costco in the UK ... they appear to have imported the US-type cubicles along with everything else

MsGame you have obviously never been to a restaurant in the US if you think "every single customer facing person" is that rude, abrupt and arrogant. Wait staff in restaurants are completely reliant on tips and most would seriously lick your shoes and call you "Your Majesty" if they thought it would lead to a bigger one.

That said, there are plenty of rude, abrupt and arrogant customer facing people but they're usually in the airports. No tips there, so no reason to be polite.