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 😅

In Cairo a mother begging on a roundabout. She had tethered her toddler in the middle with a rope so he couldn’t run in the road.
Also Cairo a young lad about 12 trying to stop the horse he was leading from rearing up, it galloped off and an older man with another horse was whipping the lad for losing the horse.
And Sudanese refugees living in tents along the middle of main roads.

This is very outing if you know me as I’ve told people this before. In the mid 90s I did an exchange to Germany and they had a teenage magazine like smash hits or similar, I can’t remember what it was called but I do remember it was ‘Das Body Issue’ and on the front it had a completely naked teenage age boy and girl. Coming from my all girls secondary this was quite the shock.

that and the more liberal approach to drinking and all the older Germans who apologised to me for the war.

Yeah I'm really fascinated by the not using knives thing. I feel like here in the UK it is bad manners to just use a fork. How do they eat something like a piece of chicken that would need to be cut up?

Visiting family in the US as a teenager in the mid 70s and going to McDonalds for breakfast and discovering root beer. There weren't any McDonalds in Scotland then.

Attending church with family on the 4th of July which also happened to be the bicentennial year and loads of people dressed up and standing with their hands on their hearts singing God Bless America. I also wondered why they were singing the wrong words to the British National Anthem!

As a 13 year old I thought that it was the most amazing place in the world and wanted to move there.

Also going to East Berlin at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall and trying in vain to spend our Ostmarks as we couldn't take them back to the west. We couldn't even get a drink in a hotel bar as there was a queue. In the end we gave what we had left to two East Berliners who were coming back from the west. We then got round the corner and found a duty free shop.😁

I just assumed the rest of UK did this too 🙈 only been to Northern Irish funerals? So are they closed coffins in Uk?

The camels thing is a joke.

Glasgow - stopped at a local shop, only one item of each thing they sold on the shelves and the shop assistant behind a metal grill
Edinburgh - fish and chips served from a small hatch in a metal grill
Marrakech - constant male harrassment, sheeps brain corner bbqs and betting on small boys boxing
Pride marches UK - open sexual fetish displays in front of kids

What a load of condescending nonsense.
It's absolutely nothing like how you describe it.

Same in Beijing, right there in the hotel lobby 😳

Nope I think shoes on is gross, if you are coming here you need to take them off.

Yeh in England most funerals have a closed coffin and people don’t look inside them.

Let's not derail the thread with this.

Closed coffin and no vigil usually.

I worked with a very nice Japanese woman who used to visit our UK office occasionally. She was amazed that friendships and chat and banter amongst colleagues was actively encouraged.also amazed that she was included in lunches and after work drinks. In Japan office life was generally much more formal and even a relatively senior woman like her never attended social business meetings.

On another occasion one of her young male colleagues accompanied their boss to the UK. There was a very, very boozy night out and this poor tee total lad was visibly struggling. I sloped off about 9.30 and asked him if he wanted to leave with me and I'd show him back to his hotel (Nothing dodgy I'm probably older than his granny and he was new to London). Apparently as the junior employee he couldn't leave until his boss did. And his boss is always the last man standing. Poor boy. First visit to London and all he saw were offices and bars and had the responsibility of escorting a drunken older man back every night.

No stigma, just better behaved children

That's not the Third World.

Nope I think shoes on is gross, if you are coming here you need to take them off.

My daughter has wheels (wheelchair or walking frame) is she expected to leave those at the door?

I wish it was.

Sure thing boss 🙄

The sheer size of Turkish weddings.
1000 people - normal. Everyone you've ever spoken to, your parents have ever spoken to, everyone. Plus the fact you have to provide food and drink for this amount of people (albeit you make your money back as cash gifts are a must).

Glasgow - stopped at a local shop, only one item of each thing they sold on the shelves and the shop assistant behind a metal grill
Edinburgh - fish and chips served from a small hatch in a metal grill

Being local to both those places, I have never seen this.

Ooh how so? I would find this so interesting!

Same, was there last year and all of us (even the more attractive women) were ok. Was speaking to young women at the airport and they said the same. Egypt on the other hand... Ran a gauntlet around dd and dn.
Having grown up in Australia, the not just popping in to see people (I know, mn sin number 1).

Yes the women all covered up at the pool surprised me too.They never went in the water but the men and kids did

It isn’t tourists that generally make locals moan, although those who ignore the by laws and feed or pet the forest ponies and donkeys cause great annoyance, it is the waste of land and property on rich people who don’t live here. For example a large local livery yard which was a valued resource and successful business was bought by super rich Londoners a couple of years ago.
They changed the name of the place which had been it’s name for eaons and chucked out all the liveries and have since visited the place only a handful of times.
The traffic around tourist hotspots can be irritating but in general we all know back roads and places to avoid as it will be grid lock in holiday times. But most people welcome visitors. Why shouldn’t people want to come and see such a beautiful area? I take it as a sort of compliment and I know I am lucky to live here.