Expats, tell me what aspect or social norm of your new country was strange to you?

Brit living in Aus.
All of the above, but the main thing I can’t get my head around after 8 years is the fact that you have to pay an invoice twice a year for schools, to cover school trips, sports lessons, recorder lessons, etc, PLUS we have to buy our own stationery! Everyone just accepts it, but to me it’s weird. —And— —expensive—

Another Brit in China - people are really blunt and direct and think nothing of commenting on your appearance and weight. Quite often going into shops, you will get told you are 'too fat' 'nothing will fit you here'. The clothing sizes are much much smaller.

Also shoe sizes are tiny - UK size 3 being the most popular size. Quite often told - 'nothing here for man size feet' .

You will be in a lift and hear people saying stuff like - 'you got so fat' and no-one batting an eyelid.

Is quite difficult to get used to at times...

In Ethiopia people gasp to mean 'yes' or 'okay' which is quite unnerving until you get used to it

More:

Calling a 'parking place' a park. As in 'did you find a park okay?'

Takeaway always pluralised. Chinese Takeaways, Fish and Chip Takeaways

Everything shortened Rego for Registration (even spelled like that on official documents!). Maccas for McDonalds. DP and I needed something to clear the bathroom sink as it was running slow. He said 'bet it's called Drano'..... as a joke...

Brit in NZ: flummoxing behaviours..

No parking on the other side of the road.

Paying on exit rather than asking for the bill and paying at table. Must better system imo, no waiting around but took an age to get used to.

Inability to queue: person behind you doesn't stand behind but to your side. As queue moves person sidles up meaning single file queue becomes a queue of 4 people wide.

Kiwi dip. Tinned cream and powdered onion soup. Obsessed with it. Ubiquitous at every gathering. They can get that to fuck! Horrible.

Optional shoes I think is absolutely lovely!

@SeaToSki I'm in Maine. I asked because our local town we have a ski hill that overlooks the ocean and we call it sea to ski!

I don't envy you driving wise living in Mass. They're the worst drivers I've ever come across. London drivers are perfect and polite compared!

Boston driving scares the everliving piss out of me.

banana my cousin put on Facebook "don't whipersnip in thongs " with a picture of a bloodied limb.

Honestly I didn't know where to look. I've never felt so removed by the same language. :D

My dad grew up in NZ and still thinks shoes and long trousers are a massive formality and absolutely not compulsory for children.
I'm not sure he actually understands that people buy shoes for primary aged children.

He wore flip-flops at my wedding. In the U.K.

It's totally cool but he can't comprehend the price of school shoes because they're optional in his mind. :/

Brit in Oz:

complete bafflement at having to park same way as traffic flow- even if it involves a U turn (although it does make sense).
Things open on Christmas Day AND trains run- fabulous.
The chattiness in shops although now I find UK shops very abrupt on my trips there.
Shops open on Sunday beyond 4/5pm- but I realise when visiting UK that I always need something at 6pm!
Primary schools just open the doors and kids flood out, seeking a parent like a heat seeking missile. Or they walk home on their own. Or wander off with another parent (known to them) if parent is not there yet. Very common (as a parent) to get a call saying ' can you take Johny home as I am stuck at work/in traffic'. Schools have no part in this process.
Teachers at primary called by their first name.
If you visit someone, you take food. Always take a plate.
Dental visits require a small mortgage.
If a word is too long use the first syllable and add 'o"...eg rego (registration for your car), servo (Service station)
A park is either a parking spot or a place where children play but don't get the two confused.
Thongs are not knickers up the crack of your bum.
doctors and dentists all have the title 'doctor' but you call them ' 'George' or "jean'- none of this title lark.

I am now perpetually confused when I visit UK.

@shesalady I am in Massachussets, how about you? I got a ticket the first week I was here for parking facing the wrong way on the road. I couldnt believe there could be such a stupid rule. Then I saw how badly everyone drove and realised it was to help them figure out if the road was one way!

How about the spelling differences. It makes me cringe everytime I have to write color, or realize. Thank goodness for spell check

Oops finger slipped 😂
If you call an electrician around you’ll be lucky if they arrive 2 hours late.
Also, constant bank holidays.
& oil with bread/ toast.
Everyone has motorbikes too.
The cost of cars is a lot more.
Driving long distances is the norm.
Gibraltar- everyone smokes. Like everyone.

Spain
Everyone is always super late for everything (if they even arrive at all) c

😂 I remember this from being an exchange student in Germany in the late 90's. Our English teacher insisted that "metaphor"was pronounced "Met-Afa" and was not having it when I said otherwise!

Whoever mentioned the German moving help thing - yes, I've done my fair share of hoiking things up endless steep flights of stairs in liftless turn-of-the-century Berlin tenements for friends. I once even worked for a (small) company that moved offices like that rather than paying for a firm. (They were genuinely a lovely lot, not exploitative at all). We've moved a fair bit and always paid for firms, though, because I'm too British to feel I could ask anyone

The desperation to speak English with me drives me mad, although I am unfailingly polite about it. I particularly love the ones who correct my English because they are sure they know better. Always with an air of incredible assurance. WTAF?

JumpingFrogs, I did the cable car over the Rhein in Cologne once with my just teenage daughter. There is a spa at the far end where people go to sunbathe etc, so as the cable car "comes in to land" you are presented with elderly chaps with all on show, legs akimbo etc. I think dd was a bit bemused by my insistence of the brilliant view of the cathedral (far in the distance)....

@FinallyHere

I guess it depends where you live. Regarding public transportation it also depends where exactly you are at. The most touristy stations do get announcement in both English and German but many others don't (including mine!), yes it's very easy to find people who speak English (though again it depends) but the first time I visited Germany as a tourist I spoke no German whatsoever and was rather confused going to museums and other touristy places and often finding a lack of information in English.

I totally agree that people should learn the local language. English isn't my native language yet I speak it along with French, Spanish and Italian (the local languages of the places I have lived in) and while I have been in Germany for about a year, I am still learning so yes it does mean I still rely a lot on English. That's because I haven't been here for too long and aren't fluent in German that I noticed the lack of English informations in some museum /touristy places which is a shame because you can't really expect everyone to be fluent in German and it does mean you don't make the most of those historical places (in my book).

I don't expect everything to be available in English, it's Germany and I expect people to mostly speak German so my "rant" is only linked to some touristy places who don't offer much information in English limiting a bit the experience you end up having there. That's all.

Good on you for sticking to learning German, it's quite a complicated language (definitely the hardest amongst the ones I have had to learn) so it's definitely commendable!

British in France here.

• Saying “bonjour” to everyone, all the time. When you get in the lift at work, when someone else gets in the lift, when you go into a shop (and “au revoir” when you leave”), when you pay for something, when you pass your neighbours on the stairs. All the time.

• The long lunch breaks and constant coffee breaks. Eating at your desk would be seriously frowned upon. Snacking in general is frowned upon. You have a two or even three course lunch in the Work canteen with your colleagues.

• Sunday trading hours and (worse) shops and banks closing at lunchtime. My bank is open from 9:00 to 12:45 and 2:15 to 5:00 pm. WHY do they close for two and a half hours over lunch to make sure there is no time office workers can get there during their lunch break? It is a mystery. The exception to this rule is the post office, which seems to be open until 7pm every day.

• It is totally acceptable to order nothing but tap water in a restaurant, but many French people will only drink bottled water at home. My husband does this. He’ll drink tap water when we go to a restaurant, but not at home. Drives me mental.

• You generally can’t check your bank balance at a cash point unless it’s the bank you bank with, and sometimes not even then. Often cash points will not give you the option to withdraw less than €40 and then it will give you a €20 and two €10s. Why?!

• Needing your passport to do anything at the bank, even when they know perfectly well who you are. No other form of ID will do.

• The strikes. Oh god, the strikes. There will be train strikes for two days per week between the beginning of April and the end of June.

• Bank holidays. There are more of them, but they are fixed on a specific day, so if they fall on a Saturday or Sunday, it’s just too bad.

• August. Everyone takes the whole of August off. If you don’t, you’re considered weird. Even if you don't have children so you have no need to go away during school holidays, people expect you to take August off, and you get no brownie points for being the one who stays in the office to man the fort. Shops will close for an entire month, whole sections of the train network will shut down, and you can’t get a bikini wax before your beach holiday because all the beauty salons are closed.

• No one drinks fresh milk. You can get it in the supermarket but only foreigners buy it. French people drink tiny coffees. They don’t know how to make tea.

oh, and how the pool closed during the winter because at 25 degrees c it is "too cold to swim"

Todamhottoday and bluebells1 I spent 18 months in India and totally recognise your experiences. It is a country I both loved and hated living in, in equal measures.

I will add to that...

• having to sign a permission slip for my maid to leave the complex while I was back in the UK for a visit (don't judge me for having a maid: it was the result of a bit of guilt and naivety that I ended up with one!!!)

• having to wear a swimming cap even if I kept my head above water. I recall having an hilarious argument with the pool guy that the other person in the pool had more back-hair in the pool than I did head-hair and no one was making HIM cover it up

• having to give my father's name on so many official documents, such as my lease agreement or for my gas connection. I eventually got to writing celebrity names to keep myself amused because there was no way it was ever going to matter.

• cows eating garbage from rubbish piles in the street

• the street dentist who laid out all his dentures on a blanket on the floor while his customers 'tried them out' to see if they would fit before buying them

• how everyone in the office was always, always up for a joke and a laugh and how keenly all the men would jump to the dance floor should the chance arise

• the man who hung my curtain rail with a drill with no plug, just the bare wires pushed into the socket on the wall

Worked in Germany over 30 years ago. When I first arrived arrangements were made for me to stay with a local family while I found my feet. I was only 19, and on my arrival my hostess (a very kind middle aged woman who spoke no English) showed me my room and the bathroom. The bathroom was huge, with 2 big sinks, massive shower, bath tub, toilet and bidet. She informed me that there was no shame in her family (parents plus teenage kids) and that they all used the bathroom together in the morning....and that I was very welcome to join them!!! I was completely horrified, and got up before dawn the next morning to ensure I could have a shower without sharing the bathroom with a naked German family. Of course, as I got to know Germany better I began to understand that they like to get naked in parks, on tennis courts etc. Still friends with the lovely family, we have learnt a lot about each other's cultures over the years and sometimes have a chuckle over the dilemma they unwittingly made me face all those years ago!

I went to Texas once and we went to Pottery Barn and the cafe in the Mall and restaurants and bars, and I thought I would be annoyed with the " have a nice day" tweeness that I was expecting. In fact my whole experience was of genuinely lovely people who cared about giving good service and who were REALLY interested by my English accent and wanted to know how I came to be there. They could all have been brilliant actors of course but I did not sense it. I went on to NY where no-one gave a shit :-)

If someone says, as a greeting just the one word, "alright", then you can respond with "alright" or "hello". If they say "are you alright" then your response should/could be "yes, fine thank you, and you?" Oh, that's good! I've been getting it right. I'm used to getting things wrong.

Brit in the USA.

I was surprised at how overtly religious (Christian) this country is compared to Europe and people are much more verbal about it here.

The Liptons teabag nightmare! Liptons is still the default brand of tea on offer in many casual restaurants/on airplanes/business hotels etc... It's horrifically terrible stuff, fortunately decent coffee is always on hand.

Very friendly people who will happily start chatting with you while you're waiting in a queue. The downside of that is getting grilled about every last detail of my life by complete strangers when they hear my accent.

The MOTs here (inspections). They are woefully lacking and lots of places will pass your car even if it's falling apart.

That you dont have to have an MOT if your car is over a certain age. That's fucking insane to me. It's more likely to be dangerous!!!!

For the cars - obviously not everyone :) but a lot of people seem to care a lot more about the state of their cars here than in France. A lot of high executives in France are driving old bangers (not all of course) whereas here there seems to be a lot of pressure to show the right car. Even in rather poor areas the cars are v recent (car finance helping a lot I guess, and actually the prevalence of credit/being being in debt was also surprising here).