What was the first culture shock you remember having?

[MeiganMcSeinna6]

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

@DoWhatYouWantToAndShh

Motherhood. Thought it would be fun.

Motherhood. Thought it'd be like those blissful adverts that you see on tv for baby products....

Studying (briefly) at Oxford University having grown up in a council house in a former mill town in the North. It was a shock to be sitting next to people who genuinely thought people like me and my family were lazy scroungers and who thought it was funny that my mum was a cleaner. I left after a term and a half, hated the place.

And country-wise, probably travelling to Japan for work. I knew it would be different in obvious ways - climate, food, architecture - but I wasn't prepared for how many tiny but huge social differences there were, even down to the (to my Western eyes, very roundabout) way they did business and got sign-off for stuff.

Going to Susan’s house after school.
She got a glass of squash in a clean glass with a straw and two biscuits on a plate!
She had to sit at the table in the dining room to eat it.
She had her own room with shelves of toys and books.
I grew up in cheerful and crowded chaos. I didn’t like Susan’s house. It made me feel dirty and poor and wrong.

Going to France when I was a kid. People kissing both cheeks. I remember the french boys kissing both my cheeks every time I saw them at the campsite, I was really embarassed as I had never been kissed by a boy before! I thought it was great!

I was about 17 when I went to London for the first time with college. I was in awe of the skyscrapers and just the general feeling of wealth in the city. Coming from a small northern town, it was very apparent.

As an adult, I went to Bangladesh on a work trip and that was a real culture shock for me. We were advised not to leave our hotel, which in itself , makes you anxious. I remember being in a taxi and the driver was eating something then he just threw his rubbish out of the window. The litter everywhere and the smells in the heat were overwhelming.

Travelling to my dad's home country when I was aged 10. We had to use basic squat toilets (which was bad enough in itself) and someone came each day to take clear out the waste. Grim.

Every country has been a culture shock one way or another, but when I came to England:

the food! I was warned, but it was still a shock. It has marginally improved since.

Girls outfits on a night out in the middle of winter. Granted it's not the artic, but mini skirts, sandals and cropped top in January was a shock. Still is! Even when I go out I wear a coat and all kind of layers on top of my outfit. It's cold.

The social aspect: how it's considered so normal to want (and get) a council property subsidised by the government, and how widespread they are,

how the NHS is free entirely (apart from a small fixed rate for some prescriptions), you literally do not have to spend a penny at all,

how the schools are entirely free too, no request to buy books or stationery

and so many more example of how much help people get and take for granted.

It's obvious why the country is so desirable when so many people risk their life to reach it, when the rest of Europe seems just as safe, but it's a shock when you arrive.

Going on holiday to Italy and seeing prostitutes in every layby on the road out of Rome. Every single prostitute was a young black woman in a short white dress, like it was their uniform. In broad daylight, completely open and obvious what was going on - I knew there were prostitutes in my country but they usually operated more discreetly.

I went to a tiny private school, run by a woman who had started teaching before WW2, when I was 4. At 8, we moved and I entered the state system. Despite being in a leafy home counties village, the culture shock was huge! My first school insisted on shaking hands with the teacher at the beginning and end of each day, the Lord's Prayer to start lessons in the morning and the headmistress spanked unruly children. Within an hour of arriving at my new school aged 8, I'd heard every swear word I now know and was known as Posho for the next 4 years.

School exchange trip to Germany in my teens. The standard of living was so much higher generally, and my host family - although working class - had a much more comfortable home than the one I grew up in. They drank real coffee out of a drip filter machine, a thing I'd never seen before. They had cake forks for eating cake. They NEVER drank tap water.

In my house there is a beautiful bean to cup coffee maker, a set of cake forks that I bought in Germany and a water filter jug (I don't drink bottle water for environmental reasons).

Going to university with a working class background and seeing the attitude of some students towards those who were working class

Yes. Fortunately they were a small minority at my Scottish university. Trivial, but they sneered at me because I put lentils and barley in when making soup, for example.

Meeting a woman in Cambridge who thought I was a Clydeside communist because I didn't agree with Tory policies. I'm neither left-wing nor from anywhere near the Clyde. It wasn't her different views that were a shock, but her total ignorant dismissiveness.

@MorriseysGladioli

Working for a charity which espoused diversity, equality and other admirable values. Then seeing the bullying, targeting people they wanted to get rid of, favouritism and more.

It wasn't a leading Cancer charity was it by any chance?

I think it was when I started my first job in a city law firm. The privilege on show was quite amazing, I simply hadn't realised how much money some people had. Although I disagree that we have a "class" system, it is just about how much money you have - there is certainly a level of wealth in the UK which I had never seen before.

@isthisareverse I am not sure that the benefits are so great esp for refugees- the properties they are allocated are really awful and they get £40 per person per week.

But the big difference is:

1. English. Refugees are far more likely to speak some English as opposed to German, French and Spanish.
2. It is far more ethnically diverse than most parts of Europe so more likely to have friends and family based here. An established community also means local businesses owned by members of that community, it is a lot easier to get cash in hand work.

I have lived in Berlin and studied German in a class with some refugees. They almost all spoke some English. It is almost impossible to get a job in Germany without fluent German. So even if Berlin rent is cheaper and the standard of living is far higher, they would be better off in London in the long term.

@FangsForTheMemory

School exchange trip to Germany in my teens. The standard of living was so much higher generally, and my host family - although working class - had a much more comfortable home than the one I grew up in. They drank real coffee out of a drip filter machine, a thing I'd never seen before. They had cake forks for eating cake. They NEVER drank tap water.

In my house there is a beautiful bean to cup coffee maker, a set of cake forks that I bought in Germany and a water filter jug (I don't drink bottle water for environmental reasons).

Yes, I had a culture shock too, but in a good way. Lovely bread, pastries, really good showers etc The only thing I found weird at the time was that they had mayo with chips rather than vinegar. Now I can't stand vinegar on chips!

I do think their thing about bottled water is weird though, given they profess to be so eco-friendly. There's nothing wrong with the tap water!

I'd just begun my teacher training. Post for students was delivered to the Junior Common Room and put in pigeon holes (no emails or texting in those days.) Kindly parents would sometimes slip a "little something" in the envelope to boost their student offspring's funds.
Then a warning was sent out. Someone was sneaking in when the JCR was quiet, going through the post and opening envelopes to see if there was any cash in them.
In my naivety, I was shocked to realise that someone destined for the teaching profession would stoop to petty thieving. I had a pretty idealised view of how professionals behaved.

My first job: discovering that it wasn’t enough just to do your best and that employers could be quick to blame and uninterested in hearing both sides when a client complained. I’d been brought up to believe that all you had to do to get on was work hard and you would be rewarded appropriately.

My first winter in the UK. I'm from Canada and am used to -15°C weather and snow from late November until mid March. It was mostly above 0 and rain. I found it very depressing.

A culture delight rather than a culture shock, but I stayed with a French family for 3 weeks when i was 17. They were a very happy, lovely, functional family. My own was horribly dysfunctional. It was bliss and I'd happily have been adopted by them!

@MooseBreath

My first winter in the UK. I'm from Canada and am used to -15°C weather and snow from late November until mid March. It was mostly above 0 and rain. I found it very depressing.

but I bet in Canada you don't have the "wrong kind of snow" we have in the UK 😂

Very hard disagree @igelkott2021. In the USA or here in Ireland it's all about the money for sure . But England's class system is deeply embedded , very subtle and quite complicated. It's had since 1066 to take root so not surprising really.

@araiwa

Walking out of Delhi airport

This, and had the same experience in some other countries I have travelled to

I’ve travelled all over the world, often by myself and I live in London, but the feeling I got when I first arrived in Australia was a massive culture shock that I hadn’t been expecting in an English speaking country, in a big city (Brisbane!). I spent the first day in an absolute daze wondering where on earth I was. In hindsight it was just the after effects of the long flight and jet lag, as well as realising I was pretty much as far away from home as I was able to get, but I was surprised as I’ve travelled to many countries where the life and culture is very different to the U.K. and been fine, but I really did feel strange that day!

Oh yes definitely agree with those saying motherhood. I imagined having a boy and a girl, 2 years apart who would have excellent behaviour and coming running into our bedroom in the morning for cuddles.

I was very naive.

Starting a graduate job in Group Finance at a large plc. Wore a new trouser suit one day and got told off by the HR Manager's secretary for wearing a trouser suit and that it wasn’t appropriate for the men on the Group floors, especially Group Treasury, to see women dressed in trousers and that I should be in a skirt. This was in the late 80s.

I actually complained to the HR Manager about this and said that I hadn’t been told or indeed read in the extensive Employee Handbook anything about a dress code that forbade trousers. HR Manager then told me that the secretary was talking nonsense.

Going to work in a factory on piece work after having worked in a school.

They would have murdered me and picked my bones over in that place.

The mob mentality ruled