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 😅

I have a few red hair examples, such as in Eastern Europe being asked repeatedly which hair dye I use - I kept saying 'it's my natural colour' but they couldn't grasp that!

A Japanese family all sat around me on a bench to have their photo taken with me. That was quite sweet actually 🙂

In a restaurant in Italy, the kitchen staff all coming out of the kitchen to peer at me.

Now I'm old and my hair colour has faded a lot, I do miss it!

I can confirm that this does happen in Turkey, especially if it is just ladies. We were in Kusadasi and same story. Constantly bombarded by creepy men, being pulled into their shops and offered apple tea. They want to find Irish/British wives to as a way into the EU .

I'm from Manchester, so not sure if this counts; but last summer I went into the city centre and someone was openly injecting into their groin in full view of Piccadilly gardens. Massive shock; have always been aware of drug problems in the city centre and certain areas to avoid, but have never seen this in full view of a lot of people before.

My daughter was mobbed at a service station in Dublin by a massive group of Chinese tourists. She had just turned 1 and was eating in a high chair. They all came over asking for photos with her. She must have been the first child they'd seen after flying in. So random, there was much amusement and chat after from everyone sitting down about how famous she'd be in China now 🤣

In Aarhus (an old viking city in Jutland, Denmark) the pedestrian crossings are "guarded" by some fearsome warriors that tell you when to wait and when to cross. I can't find my photo of the red "Do Not Cross" man, but here's the green "Cross now" man:

In Turkey, the birthday boy or girl is "treated", meaning friends arrange dinner and pay for it as a way of celebrating that person. Here in the UK, the birthday boy or girl arranges the dinner and pays for it (or everyone pays for themselves). Also in general there's a fight over who will pay the bill (if you can't do this, you don't go out is the general gist) and here, sometimes it's a fight over but I didn't drink therefore won't be dividing etc. I can see the point of both, it's just something I've come to accept over the years but still amuses me. The other culture shock was kids here expected to leave home after 18 and Turkish mums clinging to their kids for dear life to not let that happen for as long as possible 😂

My culture shock when I moved to Greece was the fact when someone died the funeral was literally the next day with an open casket. I couldn’t understand why they did that as it was so immediate. I was told it was due to heat:( I also was shocked when on my first visit I saw my mil casually cutting up a whole octopus in the sink tentacles and all (like a scene from alien) ..then being expected to eat it.

Being able to buy a bottle of rum (any hard liquor) in Panama from any store, including pharmacies and gas stations. Took a while to get used to that.

Thailand - Bangkok- dead kittens in the gutters, the shanty towns that people lived in. Then we moved on to a beach resort, expected glorious beaches but instead found the sand covered in seaweed and crap, and people living on the beach. There were occasional nice places, but I wouldn’t go back. There’s nicer places in the world.

In Bogota, Colombia, they have men and women on the cross signals. About evenly distributed I think.

It was quite startling, male is the usual default, so to see female signals was new.

Northern Peru: driving from the border of Ecuador through the desert to a small coastal town, rubbish everywhere, in piles and piles like dump trucks have exited the towns and dumped truck loads of rubbish on the outskirts. Plastic bags coating the scrubby bushes in the desert.

The whole enviornment literally trashed.

Stray cats and dogs in horrific condition everywhere. I have the sight of a dying puppy in a mound of rubbish seared in my brain, comes back to me at 2am when I can't sleep.

I will never ever go back to Peru.

Coming back from having spent a month in Turkey where every person you met would want to entertain your baby and help with the baby, whisk your food out early if baby was looking upset….just generally wanted to help if they saw a mum with a baby…

to UK immigration where we stood in a queue for hours whilst all the children cried and the adults without kids went through the speedier biometric gate. It really brought home what an anti-children culture there is in England.

Rush hour in Cairo. Everything from supercars to donkey drawn carts on the roads.

We have ranch Pic is the one they sell in Tesco. M&S and Waitrose have their own brand ranch too.
Admittedly you'd need a biggish supermarket, rather than being able to pick it up at the corner shop!

My kids were born while we were working in West Africa - hot all year round. When we moved to the uk, my youngest was about 4. He developed a habit of stroking random ladies' legs . I realized he'd never seen anyone wearing tights before - he was totally confused by how arms and legs could be completely different colours. I had to demonstrate putting on tights to prove it!

More recently we've been living in Southern Africa where you must start a conversation with a greeting, howare you, how's the family etc When I've done the same eg with check out staff or receptionists they looked at me like I was a bit unhinged!

I'm from London so not a stranger to seeing homeless people but I was absolutely horrified by what I saw in Manchester

Totally agree with this. Also I found it strange that the roads didn’t have pavements to walk along. I remember coming back to the UK after quite some time there and finding it so strange to walk along the roadside pavements again.

Kids and cats are definitely the kings and queens in Turkey. Though some grannies with unsolicited opinions on what you should feed your kids, they're dressed too lightly, etc can get a bit annoying. If English speaking you're blissfully sheltered from this, enjoy!

@VodkaCola My friend has very pale celtic colouring (porcelain skin, green eyes, pale red/blonde hair) and we once spent a very uncomfortable bus journey in Valencia with a coterie of elderly ladies stroking her cheek and hair and exclaiming "guapa, guapa!". I, pale olive skin and dark brunette hair, was roundly ignored.

Crossing the road in cities in Vietnam was something else.

That’s not quite correct - statistically, the UK has more cases of homelessness compared to the USA (you can check the statistics here: www.ft.com/content/24117a03-37c2-424a-97ed-6a5292f9e92e ). While it could be argued that the definition of homelessness is open to interpretation, the UK does have issues with homelessness, especially for a developed nation, and this appears quite magnified because the country is much smaller. I live in Canada, with family in Sri Lanka (adding this to answer your question!) - and I have visited the US, as well as several developing nations mentioned on this thread. To a visitor like me, it is something of a culture shock to see large sections of the UK look very much like any developing nation (with a good deal of homelessness and filth, for instance), but with a much higher cost of living.

I lived in Spain for a few months. As far as I can remember the washing machine was in the kitchen. The washing line was one of those that went from one side of the internal courtyard to the other. You pulled it in to put your clothes on it and if something fell, it would land on your neighbour's line and you could go downstairs to ask for it.

I loved having the draining board for the dishes in a cupboard above the sink. The water drained to the sink and it looked tidy.

Just imagine the queues for the toilet if people went there for their nose on top of the usual stuff.

It's pretty bad in most of Europe too. I'd be interested to know which countries don't have a homelessness problem actually, maybe the rich Gulf ones?

And the reverence to the Royals has decreased SO much since my childhood.

I've personally only seen disdain for the upper class in real life, but I do see some reverence on MN.

Even as a small child I knew Scandinavians were relaxed about nudity so I'm surprised either of the two posters above were shocked.