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 😅

If that were true, cafes in small towns without many tourists, wouldn't serve wine, but they do, don't they?

Listen to that something.

I grew up in a small town where there was one bus an hour. I remember being shocked at people in London swearing and huffing when they just missed a tube and I thought "you only need to wait 2 minutes! How ridiculous!"... and then yes, after a while, you're one of them!

It's not very far, in the grand scheme of things, but I moved from a deprived town in the north east, to a leafy south east town.

Everyone got up and went to work, cars weren't all battered, people were clean, it smelled pleasant, the shops didn't have bars or shutters on their windows...

Who has been racist ?

I’ve lived in both countries and don’t notice that many differences at all

"Biggest culture shock has been how much better customer service is here. It's night and day. And not just in places where customers tip (better customer service is often attributed to tipping culture)."

Little anecdote. A friend of mine went to Amsterdam with two other friends. Something went wrong with the room. The Spanish girl didn't want to complain at all, my friend (Spanish, but living in the UK) as happy for the manager to be called in the morning and the American girl wanted the manager to be called immediately even though it was not an emergency and he would have quite likely been in bed at the time.

I actually don’t think you are from the North East at all

Now that’s an experience!

Visiting the UK with my toddler after years living in a culture where children are welcome everywhere and fussed over. It felt like he was just a nuisance to people generally, getting in the way of older people in the retirement town my mum lived in. But when we went to a cafe with a friend and her puppy people were falling over themselves to pet the dog! 😅The contrast was striking.

Visiting my in-laws in Ukraine. DH's grandma serving us beef stew, potatoes, soup and homemade wine for breakfast!

This happens all over the UK and probably loads of other places too.
I think they are able to do it for two reasons -
They're not really outside for very long, they're usually moving between clubs/bars +and in my clubbing days, the cash machine)
They are warmed by the alcohol. Horrible, but apparently people dying in the freezing waters after the titanic sank died slower if they were full of alcohol because it kept them warmer

Have I missed something?
I can’t see any racists posts. Complete tool posts like my own but I can’t see any racism. Can you help me out?

Not a glass a glass of wine. Men or women. Wine is something we have with meals. Drinking it on its own is not a thing.

I've mentioned plenty on here before, but maybe not the Russian military guy we hosted as part of a language school/homestay experience thing

He wanted to take back a pair of western trainers for his wife, so I took him shopping to look at all the racks of them, and he asked if they were actually for sale
On being told yes of course, he wanted to know what the next customers would buy if all these went, and I had to explain that they had more in the storeroom, a warehouse after that and yet more arriving all the time

It just didn't compute - back then he'd have had to wait weeks for any of it at home - and it was a cultural lesson I've never forgotten

Oh, and he brought a large tin of caviar as a host gift and the conversation turned to just what it would cost in the UK ... which nearly spoiled his visit when he realised what he could have made by bringing far more and selling them here

During Covid, getting a Taxi from the airport in Kefalonia to my dwellings and the Driver being rude, shouty, smoking and spluttering without his mask (and also taking the longest way by 5 miles I later found out - not a surprise though)

Making sure to use a different Driver on my return, only for him to openly obsess about my breasts. 😳
All Greeks Inbetween were sweethearts though🇬🇷😁

I laughed at the Leeds comment, but I was really shocked at about 13 when I went 'up north' for the first time and saw back-to-back houses (coming from London).

The amount of people in China who spit very noisily, they kind of draw it up from what seems like the pit of their stomach and just spit it out on the street, women as well, I never got used to it, just disgusting.

When I worked in a campsite in France, a local man came into the bar every day for his 'rouge'. That was Burgundy and he was definitely not having a meal every time.

All sorts of cafes and bars sell wine.

Chesterfield by night 25 y ago (freezing cold and all girls out halfnaked).
Detroit: first time I met antiwhite racism. I thought I wouldn't make it out the neighbourhood alive.
US in general: first: how friendly and outgoing people are...then: how people love to hear themselves talk non-stop.

There's plenty of affection, it's just subtler and done in different ways

I know this is off topic but I have always hankered after having a name that reduced to initials, USA style would sound really good. I don't think that it's very political or sex/gender based.

JFK. (I think we all know him.)
AOC. (Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.)

I would be KAH. KayAyAitch. It just doesn't fly does it? Or, possibly, KAA. KayAyAy. Which is even worse.

I'll never be an iconic US political figure. Yet another thing I'll have to learn to live with.

Visiting Africa as a single young woman - not only the sights and sounds but I had to bribe many 'officials' with a few quid and fake address to get what I needed.

And the adorable kids who had never seen a white person before, scrubbing at my skin to rub the white off.

In India the staring and hassle from men was pretty awful. Love the country though.

Actually I agree that a glass of wine is not usually what people drink as an apéro on its own. A glass of white with some oysters, yes, but not typically as a standalone drink.

Same for me. Morocco in general was like this. Relentless harassment.