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 😅

@BitOutOfPractice

Marrakesh

Yes, but if you tried to make a fuss of someone's baby these days, you'd be told to stand back, not touch, not give them your germs, etc.

We moved to Belgium some years ago because of my husband's job. He was really busy so I thought I'd sort out the admin, like registering in the commune, buying a car and opening a bank account. It really wasn't possible without him there as well.
They had a weird idea about wives, but I have to say I really loved living there. I want to go back to retire there.
I also love the big French greetings everywhere in the Francophone parts of Belgium and France itself, everyone is so happy you have come into their shop or cafe, and it just makes everything nicer.
But wine and chocolate with everything wasn't great for the waistline 😂

Yes, I know, but what has that got to do with the claim that they never drink wine without a meal?

I doubt that’s normal, that woman may have had health problems that caused it and felt she had to apologies as it was out of her control

I work in FE in a northern town , we have had to put up no spitting signs! Disgusting.

I've seen this before and I figure they mean elite culture e.g. opera houses and concert halls. They don't mean local choirs and amateur dramatics in the village hall, but that is culture too and is very rich in some parts of Wales.

I hated Sri Lanka for this reason - I was constantly hassled and experienced the same with cons.

Once at a train station I asked the official guy there when the next train to Candy was, he said it was cancelled, and I should take a tuk tuk with his friend instead.

I smelt a rat so I insisted on thr ticket waited and sure enough the train came.

I'm well travelled though and listen to my gut on things, I can imagine he convinced many tourists to part £££.

(The train ticket was very cheap $2, whereas his 'friend' wanted approx $60!).

Harassment in France still gives me the rage over 20 years later. I spent 6 months in Paris, absolutely hate it as a result, they can all just fuck off.

Canada. 1990s

Got chucked out of a male-only bar. I didn't know these things existed in the west.

Having a french-style picnic in the park with a bottle of wine and a police car drove across the grass to where we were sitting to tell us public drinking wasn't allowed.

"I thought I'd sort out the admin, like registering in the commune, buying a car and opening a bank account. It really wasn't possible without him there as well.
They had a weird idea about wives"

How is that weird? Of course he has to register himself at the commune like everybody else.

"everyone is so happy you have come into their shop or cafe, and it just makes everything nicer."

Such a contrast to my first time in Wallonia!

What would you do if your nose was actually running like a tap, while walking or on public transport for example, just let it drip down your face or use a tissue to blow your nose. I dislike blowing my nose in public but sometimes you have no option. Certainly not rake imo.

A night out in Blackburn in the late 1990s. I am from London. Eye opening 😂

HA! I have worked in London my whole life and I have never seen anyone run to get to work. And I work in what's considered a very fun and glam industry... Maybe they run into work at Canary Wharf?

For me it was the explicit racism when I lived abroad. Things I hadn't heard come out of a white person's mouth for years - in fact things I had only ever heard come out of people who openly supported the national front or British movement. I'd be casually chatting away to someone and boom, there it was. My friend reckoned it took about two weeks for new arrivals to feel comfortable spouting their bigotry.

Seeing a statue to Oliver Cromwell on my first visit to London. (I'm Irish).

@Gwenhwyfar No it was weird in that they wouldn't speak to me.
I was buying the car, not him.
Yes of course he was registering at the commune, but it took several visits to sort it all out., same with the bank account
We were also in Wallonia, had a lovely, lovely time for about 6 years, up to 2019.

I knew a very middle class Irish man who would never sneeze nor blow his nose in company/in public😁

What about Leeds?

I can tell you don't live in NYC, then! I would say people are. less friendly here than in London as a whole.

Thanks for that. We aren’t all clones here in the Forest you know. We do have individual personalities.
Who ruined your experience of the New Forest and in what way?
Genuinely curious. Of course we have some arsewipes. Doesn’t everywhere?
Locals tend to moan about mega rich Londoners buying up property as second homes they barely visit.

Yeah I remember this, I went there to do research for my thesis and it was like I'd suddenly become Kate Moss, very disconcerting as I got zero attention in the UK unless out on a Saturday night, in Paris it was relentless.

Yes, the only problem about sneezing would be failure to sneeze into your elbow or sneezing into your hands. Excessively loud nose blowing would also attract attention, as would blowing your nose on your sleeve or just clearing your nostrils onto the ground or floor. But all the quieter nose blowing tones would be acceptable.

For me, the culture shock came when I arrived in the US during the Reagan presidency. The flags would have made Belfast blush.

Rural to urban: football culture. Where I grew up, the boys were all into football, but going to a match was a rare event due to distance, and it wasn't treated as the be all and end all.

Work culture: hanging out with friends of friends. Was asked "do you have a job?", because in their group more we're on the dole than not.

Ah yes, at the commune there might be some basic things you can do for someone else, but you'd need a signed procuration (just a note).

I didn't have good customer service in shops and cafes when I arrived at all. It's true that I committed some faux pas, but I was a young foreigner and they didn't have to be so awful about it.

I kissed my mother in the coffin when I was ten, that’s normal here in Ireland.