What was the first culture shock you remember having?

[MeiganMcSeinna6]

high school for me , thought it would be all sweet an innocent , Wrong

Going to Hong Kong by myself at 19 was definitely a culture shock , followed a few days later by landing in Australia.

Me and an ex were staying with a friend in San Diego and drove into Tijuana for the day, this was in the '80's.
The poverty and small children begging on the bridge into it was very upsetting.

Motherhood here too.

I read all of the wonderful Mother & Baby magazines while I was pregnant. How joyful, I was sold the dream !

Hardest but (some of the time) the most rewarding job in the world

Moving from the south of England to the north. There were so many things I found really odd.The funny thing is now this seems perfectly normal to me. To give an example, a few weeks ago my mum complained that a woman waiting at the same bus stop had tried to engage her in conversation, something she found weird and rude. To me that is now normal, but I remembered when I also thought it was weird and rude.

Staying in California for a couple of months. The streets, the trees, the shops, the houses, the weather, the light.... So startlingly different to the UK. I’d assumed it was fairly similar apart from the accents.

@itsallaboutschmoo

Starting at Cambridge and being asked by a fellow fresher 'what school did you go to?' Like he'd have heard of it? It was a backwater comp in special measures. Realised at that moment what I'd let myself in for

No-one when I was up cared two hoots what school I went to. Had a fabulous time.

Moving to London. Discovering 'small talk'. Where I come from, we don't really do small talk - we either don't engage or we dive into deep stuff that would be frowned upon as too 'personal' here.

Overcast. That took so long to adjust to and I had to take extra D vitamin shots because I come from the place that has 300+ sunny days per year. I still find it draining emotionally and physically, to be honest. Quite claustrophobic. I think what I miss from home the most is the blue skies even on freezing winter days.

Low ceilings. Maybe my weird luck but I have found, renting in London and around that ceilings in flats and houses here are lower than an average in the country I came from. No idea why. Does add to that claustrophobic feeling.

Still, I love UK. I love its lush, green nature, it's architecture, history, art etc.

Moving to California and they weren't sure what a kettle was or where I could buy one! And not being able to do free internet bank transfers.

More seriously, the divide between rich and poor seems so much greater there and sets in from an earlier age.

@DeepDown12 * Moving to London. Discovering 'small talk'. Where I come from, we don't really do small talk - we either don't engage or we dive into deep stuff that would be frowned upon as too 'personal' here.*

Perfectly described the family I married into. I didn’t last long.

Going to Taiwan with my 6ft 5 husband with blond hair and blue eyes. People stared and took pictures. It wasn't bad or sinister, just weird. No one ever takes any notice of us at home. It was very strange.

Going to live in France with my mother after my parents split up. I hated it and came back to live on my grandparents Dorset farm at the age of 14, thank God.

Moving from a council estate in the West Country to a posh village in the south east at age 10. It was really a slap in the race for realising how much more wealthy some people are. I’d been totally unaware before that that we were poor and lived in a rundown area. I missed so much though…the family, closeness of the state and community. I hated my new friends middle class parents who I could tell, even at that age, looked down on me or pitied me.

The other one was visiting my friends family with her when I was 14. Her family were all British/Kenyan/Indians. I’d never been immersed in another culture so much with8n the same country.

@16purplecolour16 it was a massive shock to my DH who is uber-British when he met my family and friends :) He tried his 'weather-economy-politics' routine but they were having none of it and went straight for the jugular (read: values, beliefs, life decisions). Had to shield him most of the time (until they all understood each others boundaries) so that he didn't feel under attack every time we met with someone from my culture :)

@Bathtimebillie

Moving from Scotland to England as a child was mine. It probably also didn't help we moved from largely working class area shit hole to a stuck upmiddle class suburb.

I've lived in this city now for about 30 years. It likes to think of itself as a diverse, thriving city. But then you go to places like Manchester and Liverpool (which are nearby if you want to guess where it is) and realise it is really a pokey, provincial back water. I took my kids to Manchester this summer and they had their first culture shock.

Chester by any chance?😉

Moving from Scotland to England, aged 9. Huge shock. All sorts of differences in vocabulary, food in the shops, accents, school system, religion, everything.

Re Singapore - I guessed it was there too. Some years ago I met a psychiatrist from Singapore who was on a study visit to the UK. He'd visited a secure unit for people who were both mentally ill and also violent or arsonists or involved with the criminal justice system for some other reason. He looked on with polite interest, but eventually remarked that it was of limited relevance to his work back home, because in Singapore most of these people would have been executed.

Shock may not be the word for it but our first holiday away ever including first night away from home was when was 10 and we went to Spain. I loved it - the heat, the different people, we ended in a quiet area playing not just with Spanish children at a playground but gypsy children so it was very very traditional Spanish in the 1970s and also went to mass out there too which really gets you into a local culture. The smells, heat, differences - wonderful.

It was not however something I hated or was shocked by.

@AlfonsoTheMango

Going from living in an upper class neighbourhood in a European country to living in a Palestinian refugee camp. On my own.

Blimey, Alfonso. That's the most shocking answer so far. I admire you.

Living in the North of England, aged 18, moving from Scotland.

I was bewildered by the fact that the supermarket shut at 8pm, and shops only opened for 4 hours on a Sunday. Also pubs shut so early and if you wanted to stay out after 10 you needed to go to a horrible nightclub.

I was surprised that lots of big towns and cities I had heard of seemed to be basically joined together in one giant urban sprawl.

I was shocked at the level of racism and segregation I encountered. E.g working in a factory where the asain staff and white staff were completely separate in the break room.

There were good things too, but these were a shock.

I have two

a) first international move (was also between continents, so very different places)

b) first time in a war zone (I don't really fancy elaborating)

My first trip abroad was to Israel, and I was amazed by the quality of the light. After a month, I was hankering after woodpigeons flying from a dripping woodland on a winter morning.

@BeyondMyWits

Grew up on a small Scottish island population 120. The first time we went to mainland Scotland and travelled by train it was magical, there were not only trees, but forests... Mile upon mile of forests. I will always remember the feeling.

Have you read Twenty Years a' Growing by Maurice O Sullivan? He grew up on a tiny island too. When he first visited the Irish mainland he was amazed at the woods. And a bit overawed at the size of the place.

Re Singapore - I guessed it was there too. Some years ago I met a psychiatrist from Singapore who was on a study visit to the UK. He'd visited a secure unit for people who were both mentally ill and also violent or arsonists or involved with the criminal justice system for some other reason. He looked on with polite interest, but eventually remarked that it was of limited relevance to his work back home, because in Singapore most of these people would have been executed. shock

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g that is sadly very true! I remember when I met my husband, i told him I supported the death penalty(like over 90% of singaporeans) but only in extreme cases like murder, genocide, rape of multiple women, paedophilia (which I thought was a moderate viewpoint). My husband looked at me like I was crazy. But it is refreshing how mental illness is treated here, it is mostly ignored in Singapore.

I told my parents that people didn't want lockdown cos they valued my mental health and they too looked at me like i was crazy..

@Tohaveandtohold

England I grew up in a third world country however one thing I had in my town growing up was a big house, because people built their houses and labour and building materials was cheap then with lots of green outside space, our garden was as big as a small park with mango, coconut trees, etc. The country’s economy became so bad due to bad governance and everyone started trying to relocate. When I got to England to study, my first house was a studio flat and on the terrace, there were 6 other flats. I couldn’t believe how much flats there was in a little space with no gardens, houses joined together, it was shocking to begin with. And I had to buy mango rather than pluck it from the tree 😂😂

Also, I lived in that flat for a year and never knew my neighbours, no one spoke to each other. That’s in contrast to where I came from where every one knew each other.

People smoking and drinking openly on the street or in a park, that never happened where I came from as people tried to keep it from people if they did that.

On the upside, the better economy here makes this place a good place to live. In most cases, people don’t look down on other people’s jobs here which is something that happens always where I came from and people were always ashamed if they were handy men, etc. Things have changed there now though as lots of people are becoming enlightened

I think we came from the same place or similar.😆

The tiny homes here with tiny gardens...oh my god. The squashed-together, expensive/rich terraced homes feel like a joke because where I'm from, expensive/rich homes are well...you know.😁 Even some poor people, people on low income and working class still have spacious compounds, let alone the middle class, upper middle and upper class. Most people also have 2 homes due to the city/town homes and the village/countryside/ancestral homes; the latter being even more spacious. More land and all.

Here, everywhere is just compact, from the roads to the homes. Having 2 homes is reserved for the rich-rich. But it's a small island with lots of people including us😆

If my sister is to be believed, my very first culture shock was going to the cinema age 4 to see the fox and the hound. I wide-eyely exclaimed, that's the biggest tv I've ever seen...

My next one was age 7 starting school (year 1 in my country). I was very proud of my backpack my mother had made for me, not realising that home sewn was unusual and not cool. Everyone else had Solomon or Fjällräven kånken backpacks, which were the cool brands.

Age 9 visiting Leningrad (now St Petersburg) with my dad and seeing the areas and people tourists didn't see as my adult cousin took us around. It was quite the shock especially when also going on the touristy outings. That was the first time I realised that in some countries the tourist experience can be very different from the reality of the locals.

I could go on, but I think that one opened my eyes enough that I wasn't that surprised whenever I found any place different to expectations.