Things that baffle you about another country

[Soubriquet]

America:-

Why are the gaps in the toilet doors so wide? Do you really enjoy an audience?

Why can’t tax be included in the price? If I want to buy something for a dollar it should be a dollar! Not dollar plus tax!

Australia:-

Still weird that you have Christmas in summer.

Wonder if they have different Christmas songs there.

Can’t see walking in a winter land being a big hit.

More like hiding from a hot heatwave

I'm Brit/Irish.

I love German toilets with poo shelves. I wish we had them here. You can tell a lot about health from stools.

I also love the bum guns you get in Asia to clean yourself after pooing. They are so much more hygienic than loo roll and more environmentally friendly.

In Greece you can buy different flavours of tahini to eat with bread for breakfast. It is just delicious and I haven't found it in the U.K. (except for silly money on Amazon).

Mostly the things I remember about other countries are things I'd like to have in the U.K/Ireland. I forget any negatives when I come home. One exception is how hard it is to buy wine in the USA and Canada. I'm used to being able to pick up a bottle of something reasonably pleasant and reasonably priced at any supermarket or grocery store but it's so much harder in North America. The 'normal' shops sell beer but for wine you have to go to specialist stores that only open limited hours and charge a fortune.

Maybe it's me but when I went and stayed in Belgium at a friends house who also introduced me to all her friends and family as we went round to their as well, the toilets kind of baffled me. All of them lived in beautiful Belgian town houses and the toilets in these houses were tiny. You would shut the door and sit on the cubicle and your knees would literally touch the door. So imagine toilets on a plane plus the door being by your knees. Maybe in the olden days the toilets used to be in the garden but when it was moved indoors, there was no space to accommodate it as these town houses are very narrow or maybe they don't want people to read books and spend time on the toilets hence they made it so uncomfortable. I also find other countries flush pressure on their toilets quiet annoying as it's weak and doesn't move my efforts where i then have to flush it 10 times and then it feels like I'm going to flood the toilets.

Despite owning a tumble dryer my mum only used it very rarely as she was too tight. The vast majority of the time the washing was left to dry on a maiden on the landing without an open window. The condensation settled in the colder box room and it was constantly covered in black mould. She didn't seem to see the connection which looking back is baffling! I use my tumble dryer a few times a week and absolutely hate any condensation in my house.

We have a lot of unwanted animals because people are the same anyway and don’t always think or prepare carefully before making a decision, so we end up with dumped pets just as we have any other kind of dumped unwanted rubbish

Also the vet bills are expensive. I think many people don't realise it when considering a pet.

Strict British bedtimes always seemed normal to me, until I spent more time with DP's family who live in various European countries. Now I don't understand why British families can never do anything after 7pm.

Two single duvets on a double bed always annoys me in Germany and the Netherlands. I can't starfish across the bed if sleeping alone and it's not great for cuddling either.

I still don't understand the American sales tax thing. Every shop has different prices and prints their own labels anyway - it's not that every shop sells coca cola for $2 + tax.

Americans will never accept an NHS system if it means they can't get a GP appointment within a few days, or physio within a week, or a biopsy or ultrasound right away. Or have to wait a year for a hernia or cateract operation. That's not propaganda, that's how it is for lots of Brits.

Brits can choose to pay for those things. The US only has shorter waiting times for medical care when you exclude the number of people who are waiting forever (i.e. never get the treatment because they can't afford it)

In Netherlands, perhaps Germany too? they have their surnames on the front door,
why dont we?

For privacy and safety reasons. Also, it's not in our tradition to do it.

It definitely was a tradition when I was young, many years ago.
Perhaps it was regional. I still see it but not so often.

The PP who commented about UK garden centres makes an interesting point, I never thought of it like that but yes, garden centre trips are often a bit of a 'trip out'.

Many retired/elderley people will visit to meet up with friends; as a child we'd take my Gran out on a sunday for a walk around and a drink in the cafe.

As there are often pets for sale like fish or small animals there's something to keep young children entertained for a while. And of course as much of it is indoors it solves the British weather problem.

Quite funny now I think of it!

@GreenlandTheMovie

Oh, and the thing that puzzles me about Brits is why do so many of them struggle with basic spelling? Especially plurals.

Why do so many native English speakers think you can make plurals by adding an apostrophe and an "s" onto the end of a word?

If you start a thread on that you'll get no end of people claiming to be victimised because they are dyslexic.

@aloetia

Maybe it's me but when I went and stayed in Belgium at a friends house who also introduced me to all her friends and family as we went round to their as well, the toilets kind of baffled me. All of them lived in beautiful Belgian town houses and the toilets in these houses were tiny. You would shut the door and sit on the cubicle and your knees would literally touch the door. So imagine toilets on a plane plus the door being by your knees. Maybe in the olden days the toilets used to be in the garden but when it was moved indoors, there was no space to accommodate it as these town houses are very narrow or maybe they don't want people to read books and spend time on the toilets hence they made it so uncomfortable. I also find other countries flush pressure on their toilets quiet annoying as it's weak and doesn't move my efforts where i then have to flush it 10 times and then it feels like I'm going to flood the toilets.

My Belgian PIL have a tiny toilet!

It is slightly uncomfortable, but when there are a lot of people in the house, having the toilet separate to the shower/bathroom is handy.

all right then, Why do Dutch and German, at least, have their names on their front doors

Kolkata had ( presumably still does have, but it was a while ago that I was there) a one way traffic system that changes direction in the afternoon.
It somehow isn't carnage at 2pm, but I can't imagine trying to do it in, say, Manchester or Birmingham!!

I'm maybe more positive-minded than I realise. When I go to countries I tend to pick up things they do better than here or that I like better. I'm finding it hard to recall negatives though I'm sure there are some. One thing I changed my mind on was tea. Why do British people drown it in milk and sugar, do you not like the taste of tea? You don't have to drink it.

I was there to support my colleague/friend in their time of grief

This is what I don’t get and I think why neither side will understand the other. I don’t feel supported or helped by a massive room of people who never knew the person who died. I feel irritated by them. I feel I cannot grieve with all these people around me. I’d feel like I was the host and had to go round ensuring I’d said hello and thank you to everyone, and do all the catering and organising. It is an added layer of pain to a sad time for me. What some consider cold and aloof I consider personal and reflective.

My best friend died a year ago and he was half Irish half English, I spoke at the service and I was completely on autopilot the whole day. Greeting people and being polite. I didn’t feel I’d had a chance to say goodbye at all. Later a very small group of us got together to scatter the ashes and I finally felt I had said goodbye in the way that means something to me. I understand cultures are different but this is the way my culture does it and I don’t think it’s particularly understanding to think we are cold and aloof. We all love people the same and feel loss the same and just express it differently.

i see the ancestral aspect in American has already been covered, I was there, staying with a family originally from India, the dad exclaimed He was American, and then we met others who claimed their heritage to be Lithuanian. I guess the dad in this scenario did not need to explain his heritage due to his different skin colour.

@BNEQLD

As an Aussie, I found paying for public toilets in London and elsewhere baffling! Brighton...beach? Really? I can’t get my head around people flocking to a stony pebble beach as a holiday. The Sunshine Coast is much more like it. And London in a heatwave, just about every park is a sea of varying shades of pale, paler and palest trying to tan! That’s a laugh. For some reason, the sun here burns you to a crisp after half an hour in 31 degrees and high humidity. And yet, three quarters of the way around, and on the opposite side of the world, the sun seems to have bugger all strength in it.

And why is it that most western visitors seems to think Australia is Sydney and Melbourne (and bloody Byron Bay!!) Queensland is much more civilised (sort of).

Oh, and watch out for the drop bears. They look exactly like a koala. That’s why they’re dangerous. Can’t tell them apart...

🤣 at drop bears - pesky little sods!

I visited Australia around 29 years ago - spent most of my time staying with friends in Perth. I was surprised that there were Drive-thru off licenses!

@dreamingbohemian

Do any other countries do their laundry in the kitchen? So far I have only seen it in the UK.

Objectively I know it's fine but it does still weird me out

Nope, my DM has a utility room (lean to) which is next to but separated from her kitchen by a door.

I know of a few other families who do similar.

I have a separated area myself but only because I prefer it this way and I have the room. Have lived in houses/flats where due to space this isn't possible, it's not an issue.

Oh, and in Sweden, why is so much harassment of women tolerated? In the street or wherever. I literally drove there from Denmark, over the bridge, went to a petrol station to refuel near Gothenburg and looked up and two men were hanging around my car. So I went to an off road scenic parking spot to eat my sandwiches and a man almost immediately pulled up next to me in his car, opened his car door and and started staring at me. No other cars there.

It was a residential school sort of thing. My friend was followed home to her apartment and had to make sure get taxis or be accompanied in the future. Shouted at in the street. We went on a camping trip to Varmland and two men were hanging around the women's toilet block propositioning women. We complained to the camp owner and she reported them to the police, who hauled them off. It was apparently the third time it had happened that summer and it was only July. Same blokes.

Uk
Kitchens used as launderettes.
No storage or decent walk-in wardrobe
Criminal justice system is a joke.
Feel the need to follow American traditions. Baby showers, bridal showers, prom, Black Friday...
Quality clothes are expensive, difficult to find 100% cotton at a decent price, just all cotton rich
Customer service, it’s beyond poor

Wow - stop the press!!

People do stuff differently in other countries.

There is some interesting points on this thread, but "baffled". Really?

Re: vaidating your ticket in Germany. It is because a single ticket is valid for a certain time period (I think it is 2 hours) for multiple journeys in the same direction. So I could get on a train at stationA, get off and do some shopping at stationB for an hour and then get back on a train to stationC. The date/time stamp on the ticket will verify this.

[quote BNEQLD]@skybluepinks Oh yea, NZ is a much more agreeable climate And have you noticed that when Aussies and NZers are in UK/US we sound funny? Our accents stick out like a sore bum [/quote]
It's OK for us, we can pretend to be South African and they get the blame for all our little quirks

Bars on windows in Spain - what if there's a fire and the pathway to a door is ablaze?

The ancestry thing from Americans always amuses me. Through my church I have met a lot of Americans - every one of which has declared their Scottish heritage and wear kilts for formal occasions except that they're not proper kilts, just a glorified tartan skirt that looks ridiculous

Feel the need to follow American traditions. Baby showers, bridal showers, prom, Black Friday...
I'm British and this baffles me.

Most of the other complaints - it's a small island, space is scarce, houses are smaller. That's it. Holland is the same.

My Dad lived in the US for about twenty years. He had a new build house and all the residents were part of a residents' association. They had to elect a chair and sort out refuse and recycling collection themselves - there was no centralised council picking up the rubbish.

They also had very strict rules about drying laundry outside. This was not permitted at any time because it would look trashy. My Dad had a tiny "yard" (basically a paved area connected to his house with six foot high walls). It would have been brilliant for drying clothes and the only way that anyone would have seen the evil laundry would have been if they hung out of the window on the top floor next door. But no. It was still unacceptable. So he spent a fortune taking laundry to the Korean laundry place.

I'm originally from a Mediterranean country but have lived in the UK for decades. So there are a couple of things that baffles me in the UK which are:

1. kiddies bedtime. I have colleagues and friends complaining at work or social events where they were woken at 4.30-5am and how knackered they are. When asking further questions maybe they saw a bad dream or not feeling well and the answers always no, it isn't because of that. Then I ask what time they put them to bed, the answer is "oh bedtime is 5-6pm" and then I think 🤔 no wonder these kiddies wake up at that time. My little boy has always slept for 10 hours straight, so he will fall asleep at 9pm and would wake up at 7am the next day. If I want a lie in, he will sleep at 10pm and wake up at 8am. If I put him to bed at 7pm, that means he would wake up at 5am which isn't a good idea.

Also, the country I come from is a hot Mediterranean country. The school summer holidays are long and starts in June and opens at least mid September plus during term time the schools start at 9am instead of 8.30. During holidays, kids will be up longer that's why you would see them asleep in pushchairs in restaurants or family walks by the beach because they are on holiday but at normal times, they would all eat as a family and the dad would normally be home by 8pm. When I went to my home country with my DS, he would only sleep around 7-8 hours as it's soo hot and would nap here and there during the day. But I love it when we go there, he has so many cousins and so easy to make friends even just this summer, no parent shouted at us because of covid, they let the kids play. The parks are also amazing in my home country with loads of play frames and plenty of swings.

2. The entrance in most houses and apartments. There's no porch or a separate area to store shoes at the entrance. It's very narrow. I guess the houses were designed for people who don't take their shoes off or just have to walk halfway through the house with shoes on until they get to the staircase. In my home country, there's always a large built in shoe cabinet at the entrance and plenty of area for you to take your shoes off or squat to wear them.