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 😅

Thanks. Must be me because I still don’t get the joke!

I still remember a few years ago in Castle Douglas, we four lost Americans were standing on a street corner with a map, and two women approached us to ask if we needed help. Then they actually walked us part way to our destination, where we did exchange shortened versions of our life stories.

Graffiti, in Australia, specifically Melbourne. Everywhere.

Rural France. Literally no one in the street, everything shuttered over, no noise
It's like those films where the locals emerge from their ghost village to murder unsuspecting tourists passing through

People having an 'inability to understand', 'couldn't say no' and 'acting like children?' . You sound a bit like a colonialist from the 1900s, I'm sorry to say!

Maybe rather than them not understanding, you had an inability to express yourself clearly, as you could barely string a few words together in their language? And rather than them being unable to say no, maybe you were unable to pick up the subtle, diplomatic 'no' they were communicating, because, like a child, you don't know anything about high context cultures?

Your post sounds extremely patronising.

Nonsense.

When our daughter was having teenage strops my OH often said we should have taken the 1000 camels for her in Tangiers when she was 1!

Because Catholics go to Lourdes for miracle cures...

Japan is a monoethnic state, outwardly it is kind and helpful with visitors go 'awww, no migrants, that is why everything is fine', and then you go and check their suicide rate, their misogyny, their historic site of 'torture garden', their cruelty and suddenly you think, 'naaah, thanks, I'd rather be ruffed up at a bus stop occasionally, but I prefer it here'.

Is it a Nordic country? And on a weekday?

My friend went on a date with a Swede a few years ago and was aghast when he ordered a coffee in a bar because it was a weekday, so of course he wasn't drinking alcohol.

It's not that she had an issue with the not drinking per se, just the regimented ways in which some/many Swedes live their lives.

OMG do things never change? I was there in 1975-76 to do a year abroad as part of my degree course. In fact I was about half an hour by train outside Paris. I was 20 at the time, and never NEVER have I been so pestered and harassed by men. Followed, groped, blocking my way, waiting for me outside shops and cafes and following me to my train. Constantly asking me to go somewhere with them, suggesting hotel rooms.

We went around in a group and just wore jeans and jumpers - never anything revealing - but I felt that we all spent a year being absolutely hounded. It got to the point that when I returned I would feel nervous walking along the street in broad daylight if there were any men about - and was inordinately relieved when they just ignored me.

I had hoped that things might have improved for today's young women, but I should have known better shouldn't I?

I live in a North East University town and have heard stories of women going on nights out in cold weather with open toed shoes and getting frostbitten toes! 🥶

Totally agree

The Chesterfield thing is true. I lived in the south before I came here and I always went out in a coat (and still do nearly over 35 years later).

Lords = Lourdes

I can’t imagine this being culturally acceptable in the UK!

So are people who don't drink alcohol in the UK expected to just stay home in the evening? Where I live the non-drinkers are welcome to come on an evening out, even to a bar, and no one blinks an eye if they don't drink alcohol.

I am another woman who experienced culture shock in Marrakech .
The dogged harrassment by the men -and the children in mountain villages- was scary.

I saw this very joke the other day

Moving to an affluent town in Surrey from a run down town in South West Scotland.

I couldn't believe the shops on the High Street and the people were all so good looking! And the property prices?! Holy crap!

I've been to over 50 countries now and lived in 4, but I only started travelling a lot in my 20s. My first visit to Asia was Mumbai and it was a massive shock, just the sheer volume of people everywhere and on the street. The families living on the pavement and the poverty contrasted with the immense wealth of the rich.

Also it generally surprises me how alien I find the US. They speak English but so much is so different. I've visited the US a lot (at least 20 times) so it always surprises me how foreign it feels to me personally compared to Europe. I think maybe that I like to walk a lot maybe has something to do with it. It also feels very consumerist.

Jumping onto a train in NYC and exclaiming "OH MY GOD" when the doors almost shut on me. The looks I got!! I might as well had tortured a puppy 😱🤦‍♀️

Aye we love a good metal grill in Scotland

Moving from my whote rural village to diverse East London aged 19.

Dunno where whole came from #typo

Going into a shopping mall in Johannesburg. As you exit the car park and enter the mall there is rows off lockers signposted for your “gun” was a prestigious area many stores selling Kruger Rands & diamonds.