What's the biggest culture shock you've experienced?

[Sacredhandbag]

Good or bad?

For me it was definitely the bike culture in Amsterdam - and I loved it.

But also, the over enthusiasm of shop workers in America, the silence in the streets in Japan, and the way Australians are so outdoorsy but can't handle the rain 😅

We were going to go there but something is stopping me from booking!

Cairo. It’s wild.

I've lived in France for 24 years and I think you maybe need to nuance this a little bit. If you see someone drinking wine in a bar before 11.30 am, then yes, they might have a problem but once you hit apéro time then a glass of wine is fair game. Now I think about it, you might have more of a point with red wine than white.

The alcoholics I see are usually drinking Pastis or Picon-bière.

Hole in the ground toilets in France

Can you elaborate on the Dutch bluntness? Am fascinated

Chicken sashimi in Japan.

Deffo going to India with my hardcore friend in 1996- I was 20 and had only been to Europe and the US until then- had never been to a developing country. I still remember the heat and smell (not unpleasant - just unfamiliar) rising through the floor of the air bridge and the manicness of the baggage belt and then being mobbed by taxi drivers until my friend rescued me.

My DC were born in HK and I just asked them about moving back to the UK and what was the shock - DD said "calling teachers "Sir" and sports pitches being grass and not astro". Deep 😂She did add having different length days in summer and winter, as in HK it's basically 5-7 to 7-5 all year round

When I moved to the UK the lack of affection shown between friends.

Living in South Africa and realising what in the UK would be described as a tragedy, there was just described as a shame.

The Chinese parents carried old newspapers for the little ones to do their business on didn't they?

Not being able to find decent bread when I moved to the UK. Granted this was a few decades back but even a bakery would have just white bread. No dark rye, no sourdough, no whole wheat. White, white white. And the coffee was disgusting as apparently coffee shops served you instant stuff and what was served as a salad was inedible.

Was so happy when I found a decent deli that had good bread and then discovered a place that used cafetieres to make coffee. And even happier when a lot of Eastern European people moved to the UK and the food improved immensely.

How French Quebec is

Henley regatta.

I spent 9 months traveling in Asia. Other than that I've lived in Scotland all my life.

I have much more in common with the people I met in Asia than the people at Henley regatta.

100% agree. My ex was Irish and the first time I visited Ireland with him I expected it to be just like the UK. I was astonished. It was like landing into an episode of Father Ted but more bizarre and ridiculous.

Moved from Scandinavia to Scotland ten year ago and will never not be shocked by how common it is here to have carpets everywhere and also not take shoes off inside other people's homes. And especially yhat it's considered rude to ask people to take them off in your home. How is it not rude to drag in dirt in people's homes?

Can you elaborate on the Dutch bluntness

^

To be fair us Brits do the 'with all due respect ' thing to extreme

Amsterdam has many black bikes with very little to make them stand out from one and another. They have a multi storey bike park. How do people know which bike is theirs?

This.

Followed by going to Uni in London in the 90’s. I’d grown up on a farm in the middle of nowhere and my halls of residence were in Camden Town. When a fellow student asked if I wanted to wander into town on the first Sunday I said “what’s the point, everything will be shut”. I had NO IDEA how wild you could feel shopping on a Sunday!!

Do you mean lack of physical affection or the way guys kind of act like they hate each other when they're really besties ("bantz"). I agree that is kind of weird. It's like in the UK it's possible to call someone the C word and mean it affectionately.

Yes, I don't understand this post.
The French do look down on women who get drunk, much more so than on men who get drunks, but having a glass of wine is fine!

Ah similar thing - in my 20s in Barcelona, discovering there were condom vending machines on the street!

Where are you from

"let you go"? That's crazy. What were they suspicious about? What were they saying to you?

A friend of mine lived in Texas for a bit. She said if you walk down the street strangers will pull over and offer you a lift, they assume you must be in trouble of some kind. She said during a 10 minute walk, she was offered a lift by three different people.

I can't imagine how difficult they find it when they come here!!

I cannot use these, even when bursting. Went to a new service station built early 00s about 3-4 years after it was open. Went to the toilets and sigh, it was the hole toilets. Went to the disabled toilets and me and DM were so relieved that they were proper toilets.

My best mate is a Brit who has been living in Norway for the last 20 years. She says the Norwegians are pretty reserved which can come across as unfriendly. She says you would never stand next to someone at a bus stop for example- you would stop some distance away so that no one feels obliged to speak to each other. Having said that, we went to visit her last summer and as soon as we'd arrived in the town where my friend lives, a Norwegian woman at a bus stop started talking to us so maybe she was atypical or maybe things are changing there.