If you live in a different country to your birth - cultural norms you find odd?

[Triffid1]

I am South African originally. As I was dropping DS (13) at his activity last night at 7pm, knowing I'd be picking him at 8:30, I was thinking how I just don't think I'm ever going to get used to the lateness of things for children in this country. I honestly don't think i was out of the house after 6:30 on a school night, ever, until I was about 16!!! Admittedly, we also started our days much earlier - school start was 8:05 I think.

And I admit, I find it even odder because you change your clocks so that it gets light earlier and dark earlier. And certainly where we are (SE England), everything happens LATER, not earlier. I'm also from Cape Town though so to be fair, it gets light much later so getting up in the dark was a pretty normal event in winter for us.

Does anyone else have anything like this that they find odd? Light please - I'm not looking to bash any other cultures just note the differences!

That reminds me… the popping! Pop to the shops. Pop in your bag, pop in the post. There is so much popping in the uk!

The feverish speculation about whether or not Prince William was shagging a Norfolk neighbour and what his rumoured sexual preferences were. (Part of the extended royal soap opera that has included, Charles, Camilla and the tampon, Prince Philip and his carriage driving partner, the queen and Porchy, Diana and her various amours, Harry and Meghan's Oprah love-in etc etc, and which probably extends back through Wallis Simpson, Queen Victoria and John Brown to Edward II and Hugh Despenser.)

Thank you for answering my question. For someone who despises the royal family, you’re very well informed on the gossip about them.

Scottish- back here after living in England.
Scottish funerals are similar to Irish - anyone can go as there are notices in shop windows with details - not invitation only as in England.
English parents' obsession with getting their child into the "best" school. Here kids just go to their local one.

I am from Germany:

The need to bring/collect a child all the time in primary school, be it clubs or school. Not letting them go anywhere on their own. It feels like we are wrapping them far too much in cotton wool.

No cycle lanes for normal cycling. I grew up cycling to school, work, shopping, hobbies and it was safe as there were proper cycle lanes in place. No signs of lycra or sport bikes.

Square pillows - I hate the rectangle ones. I buy mine on Amazon and duvet sets in Germany
Two mattresses in bed/two duvets - no battle each night with DH.

Crisps with lunch - it's a snack for watching a movie/TV

I know what @FranklyMyDears is getting at. From what I've seen on TV, the most ardent, flag waving, camping in tents sort of people do seem to be exclusively working class. Although that doesn't necessarily make them poor, it does mean they are very far removed from the ultra privileged family they so fervently support. It really does make you wonder.

Closed caskets at funerals.
Children not attending weddings and funerals. Weddings that normally go on until morning in most Europe)
Separate taps. Windows opening outside. No bricks/sound insulation between two floors of a house (just bits oof wood and bit of plasterboard for a ceiling)
Shops that close at 6pm. Coffee shops that are non existent after same time.
People not spending much time with family.
Very long school days and starting school at 4. Children not allowed to walk to school unless in Y6 or later. General anxiety about education (right school/catchment).
Etcetc

It’s not about pretending to be homeless 😭
It’s about being in the countryside.

😂This is BRILLIANT. I’m white British but completely agree with you.

I lived in a southern US state for a bit. It took me weeks of puzzlement to work out that "Hey, how are ya?" said in a really bright, friendly voice by a complete stranger in the work lift was the equivalent of me saying "Morning" and not someone I knew but had somehow forgotten totally.

My husband is from Cairo and everyone there is obsessed with driving everywhere, because being in your own car is much classier than taking the metro. Even if you car is boiling hot with packed up air conditioning, and you are sitting in snarled up traffic for hours with petrol fumes and angry honking horns and crazy microbus drivers all around; and the metro is air conditioned and calm.

Also in Cairo, it is apparently seen as inappropriate to take a jumper off in public, because it's like getting undressed. So if you think you need an extra layer you wear a cardigan or shirt instead.

Another Egypt one - even very small apartments will have a very strong separation between public and private areas. There will be a relatively formal "salon" with formal sofas and chairs and a glass cabinet with fancy crockery. If you are rich, that area is used for entertaining guests and there will be a separate "living" room somewhere else on the apartment. If you are less rich, that area is also your living space, but there will be a curtain or door separating that part of the apartment from bedrooms and bathrooms etc.

A linguistic one from Portugal... Say you need to do something every other day. They describe that as saying "of two in two days". From my point of view, that meant twice in two days, not once!
It can get particularly worrying when you are told an antibiotic dose is "four in four hours"!! It almost led to serious issues for me until I worked it out!

@Livingonbananabread me too - why stay somewhere less comfortable than home

I think this is a feral person thing as opposed to being a British thing. Normal people don't do that!

My feet are gross. Other people's feet are gross. Stinky, crusty and toe nails - why on earth would you want to get your disgusting feet out in the home of someone you are a guest of? It creeps me out like seeing people pick their ear wax. Keep your feet out of my sight and smell. Also slippers fit badly and are twee.

Norway - being able to look up anybody's salary.

Norway - being able to look up anybody's address.

I'd rather have people walk in my house with 'gross' feet (most people's feet are by no sensible measure gross, and they're likely in socks anyway) than shoes and the accompanying traces of mud, bin juice, cigarette ash, dog piss and shit, vomit etc that you pick up from the street. And yes, pretty much all my friends arrive at my house via public transport/on foot; and even if someone drives, they still have to navigate a pavement or two between their car and my nice floors and carpets.
Also, you just can't relax with shoes on indoors. They feel so stiff.

I'd find the opposite rude if someone waltzed into my house and didn't take their shoes off upon entering 😅

I think emigration out of the UK is a very regional phenomenon.

Yeah just clean socks really isn't it!

In Iceland, I will never get used to just seeing the President or a film star in the supermarket or the swimming pool. I mean I don't react - it's considered embarrassing and rude to make any fuss about 'famous' people (though it makes the newspapers any time a foreign celebrity is known to be visiting the country).

But I always feel that thrill of omg I just nodded hi to the Prime Minister.

I arrived in the US when Ronald Reagan was still president. Where to start...

It has changed beyond recognition, mostly for the better, though there are some obvious problems.

Some aspects were eye-opening for me as time went on and the initial strangeness wore off.
The emphasis in early years education on social and emotional development is great.
The superb public facilities in urban and suburban areas.
The level of local democracy, with votes on funding for local institutions like parks, library, public schools.
The community spirit.

Been here almost 30 years.

• will never understand separate taps in bathrooms. Hate them!
• 24 hour supermarkets that are not open 24 hours. Still baffles me that they have a big sign saying it's open 24 hours and then the small print on Sunday hours
• the obsession with cards for everything!
• giving directions in minutes. "Walk down the road for 5 min and turn right"- I always wondered how I was supposed to know how fast to walk!

property ownership: I absolutely understand that this is to a large extent because renting is expensive and insecure (I only bought a flat in England because I hadn't been able to stay longer than a year in anywhere I'd rented), but the expression 'the property ladder' always strikes me, because of the way it implies something you're supposed to climb to get somewhere, and the way it seems to damn those who haven't even managed to climb onto the bottom rung as not having arrived in life.

Very much agree about the expression 'the property ladder'.
People who own where I am don't see their houses as something to make money on. If you buy somewhere you tend to see it as being for life. This is possibly slightly different in the big cities, but not much.

There's no stigma attached to renting and non-time-limited contracts are the norm.

From India and now in the UK. I find it very odd that even houses with 3 or 4 bedrooms can have only one bathroom. Growing up, most houses we stayed in or visited had a bathroom for every bedroom.

giving directions in minutes. "Walk down the road for 5 min and turn right"- I always wondered how I was supposed to know how fast to walk!

I rented a cottage in rural Ireland once via an online site and was really concerned when I hadn't received the address of the property right up until the day of arrival. I'd contacted the site, who forwarded her my telephone number and said she didn't have a reliable internet connection. I got a voicemail from the housekeeper and it was "drive to the middle of the village, take a left. Once you've driven for a bit turn right at the stream. Then there will be a right turn, don't take that, take the next left. The house will be on the second next right once you've driven down the lane for 2 minutes after the fence post". We had to ask someone in the village (which was just a small row of 2 shops and a petrol pump, wouldn't have even known it constituted the village) where the middle of the village was, they laughed as if I'd asked him where his head was located.