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 😅

Oh my god, Switzerland! Packs of painted hard-boiled eggs sold at room temperature in the groceries aisle. Amazing! I had to check with a Swiss colleague that I wasn't dreaming.

I had a friend up from London last summer, even though she was in her 50s and has travelled the world she has never been to Scotland. She was absolutely amazed and how people just chat, that on the bus all of the passengers have one big conversation with each other. That you know peoples life stories within minutes of meeting them and that they will ask you anything !

@dappy777 France doesn't have a class system eh? BCBG.

I've been in the UK for 9 years and I'm so used to the British way of living now. When I visited my home country Japan last year, I found it really interesting that they are still living in a cash society. I paid everything in cash so I didn't get any credit card bills later on from the holiday.

You don't have subways? 🙄

I live in France. Had a business lunch today with a British colleague (male) in a restaurant and was really confused when I (female) had to pour my own glasses of water. In France women do not pour any drinks at the table.

Upon reflection it’s quite odd and I didn’t really realise that I literally never touch the water jug.

That's weird. Last time I was in Carcassobe I was in a bar, it was February so definitely the only tourist in there and everyone was drinking pastis and wine whilst watching the six nations.

It's a cliche, but probably true, that Brits drink because we're crippled by embarrassment, self-consciousness, poor social skills, emotional repression and an outdated class system. I am often struck by how much better people behave in France and Italy and Spain.

Spanish kids on a 1am bender are something else. Check out "botellón" and "kalimocha" (4 litres of a 6% alcohol drink for 4 Euros).

Well, its true that culturally, a glass of wine without a meal in a brasserie or a café isn't really a thing for us French people.
People who want wine without a meal generally go to wine bars, or just regular bars. Thats the classy way. Not having a glass of bad Chardonnay in a café.

It’s just really different to England’s / Britain’s.

And class is overall less important / pervasive in French culture. Whereas race and religion are more defining.

Americans don't really use knives. Watching a woman trying to cut up her pizza with the edge of her fork was fascinating!

Of course we use knives! I can't imagine trying to saw off a piece of chicken or steak with a fork😂

Well for me personally was travelling abroad for a few months when 19 with a female friend and the number of times we were approached by so many men! It was laughable because we would see them later doing the same thing to other girls. Hey, you speak English? We were a bit naive and friendly so chatted back, next thing offering to go home with them, go for a meal. We didn't but did a few times go out in public for a coffee, just to be nice and get to know local places. Mostly fine apart from being expected to have a snog after, grabbed by the neck, pushed into an alley. Fortunately no further.

Couple of years later we were wiser and went travelling again. Same thing, but no thank you, still too polite and got followed.

Since then, going away with my family and girls, same lol 😆 No approaching when family, with female friends same old... you're beautiful etc.

Flattery will get you nowhere, unfortunately it will with some. Xx

Yes, you'll definitely find people in bars doing that. In any café you'll find the same regulars with their glass of cheap wine, every day more or less. It's usually men, and it certainly isn't a classy thing to do.

That's interesting because when I went to France nearly 30 years ago I was told off for serving myself water and not offering anyone else. I realise that would be rude in the UK too, but I grew up without jugs of water on the table.

I live in a different country now and for a work dinner or something it's quite common for a man to serve the wine to everyone around him, but women can definitely do it too.

I cant believe i didnt actually know this. Here we have wake with open coffin. Kissing, touching the deceased person is totally normal. We recently had a sudden bereavement and the wake to funeral was 6 days due to nature of deaths. It felt so so long compared to our normal 2/3 days

Cigarette vending machines in isolated spots in Germany.

I'm not necessarily against carpets, I'd rather not have them myself cause I have a cat and it's easier to keep clean but I do like a rug.
Haha most people wear socks so you don't see their feet don't they.
I don't force people to take their shoes off as I live here and know its not the done thing so I don't think people avoid coming and they don't avoid back home as everyone does it
Just different I guess and something I don't really get

Slightly off topic what's meant by the having notions in that context?

I have some US colleagues and can confirm they don’t really eat with a knife for everyday meals. They just take a fork in their dominant hand and kind of cut everything with the side of it. If part of the plate needs cutting with a knife, they cut it all at once then lay the knife back down and eat just with the fork.

Is that related to calimucho, which was cheap red wine mixed with coke when I was a student in Spain. I think the botellon developed much later than that. Nights out till 6am probably means more alcohol is being drunk overall.

Sorry but don’t get this!

I found moving back to London a culture shock after living in Sydney. How had not noticed how filthy and smelly London was before? I became so sensitive to the smell of urine which seemed to pervade the streets.

I did also find Australia a culture shock. Despite a modern gloss it often felt like the 1950s in terms of things like traditional values, sexism and racism, which were all very overt at work and in the papers etc

I presume some guy told her he was going to Lourdes and she thought he meant Lords and was going for the cricket.

British hospitals. My first shift as an RN, I walked onto a ward, and was gobsmacked it was the old nightingale style wards. My infection control background died that day. I very nearly quit when I saw the bedpans weren't single use😱 Also the old fashioned uniforms and titles of sister and matron.

Having notions in that context would be the idea that your house was somehow more important than your friends’ comfort - like you care about it a bit too much.

Notions is a bit like thinking too highly of yourself, but it is so much more than that. Like baking homemade cakes/traybakes/biscuits/breads would be be very normal in Ireland/NI, but trying out a new ‘fancy’ recipe instead of your bog standard (been in the family for generations) recipe would be having notions. I’ve heard notions called out when someone was offered a choice of sourdough, GI or Wheaten with their soup.

As a PP said, it is most commonly used now in jest. (But there def would be an older section of society who would still see it as a real thing and even in the jesting there is often an undertone there)

Not much, tbh. There are pockets of sparkly new around the old Olympic site in Stratford and Canning Town near the docks.
The rest of it? Mostly the same.