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 😅

Moving from Sussex to remote Wales. We love it here but heck, it’s a change. An hour and a half to a chain store or large shop, four hours to London on the train and at least an hour’s drive to any major cultural anything.

Also Leeds, adult men drinking pints of milk as a take away drink.

Open carry in Texas. Blew my mind as a teenager.

Gun laws in general continue to blow my mind, really.

Went to Norway last year and I couldn't understand why whenever we got on public transport everyone around us stood up and walked to a different seat.

I think culturally it's the thing to sit in silence but as excited tourists we just chatted away.

If anyone is from Norway would love to know why.

Returning to the UK after some time in rural areas of East Africa. 6 different types of orange squash in one shop. Noticing how our dense urban areas ride roughshod over the planet. Realising how badly we treat elders. And the waste. So. Much. Waste.

I was just going to say something very like this: 35 years ago for me, but it’s as vivid in my memory as if it all happened yesterday.

Because there is a strict drinking age and liquor licenses can be revoked if a bartender or waiter serves someone without confirming age (if they look around 30 or under I guess).

Also, bartenders in Canada have to be certified about alcohol and are liable if a drunk person gets hurt. They will also cut you off pretty quick if you seem at all drunk.

Also, it’s 21 in the US and 19 in a lot of Canada. If you are with your kid they will still have to show ID (everyone has a driving license for example) even if they are with their parents and the parents can vouch for them.

We take drinking seriously. There are also RIDE programmes where they will stop everyone driving on a main road and ask if you have been drinking. Happens more in the holidays and new years.

He wasn’t served as he couldn’t prove his age. The bar wouldn’t want to lose their license or insurance.

In typical yokel style I was in the red light district in Amsterdam and didn’t know 🙄
I just said they need to shut their curtains cos you can see them in their underwear 🙈
I got laughed at unsurprisingly 😂

When was this? It's got much better I think (or it's just that I'm old).

We were warned about this when I did my year abroad, but in a roundabout way e.g. they didn't say there was street harassment, but you were warned not to be familiar with strange men and it was only afterwards that I understood why.

I remember one man just standing with his arms at the wall and his body a bit further from the wall, as if he was holding the wall up. I thought nothing of it, but saw a woman walking in the road to avoid him - he was going to trap her and presumably grope her.

Despite that, my biggest culture shock when I first went to France was that zebra crossings don't mean absolute priority for pedestrians - I nearly killed myself.

In Florida. I could see a supermarket across the road from the hotel, but there was no way to actually walk to said supermarket, no where to cross the road, no pavements, i had a buggy aged child, it just wasnt possible to safely get there unless we drove across a street. Insane.

Well this is turning into a racist thread quite quickly...

London Euston station was the first place I saw middle aged people run! Everyone waited for the platform to be announced, whereas obviously where I come from there are usually only 2 platforms, or if there are more, you know which one you train will go from.

That was probably 30 years ago, but it's still an awful place. They tried to stop me going on a train a couple of years ago by saying the gate closed early. I hadn't been informed of any kind of 'boarding time' while buying the ticket!

Horrific, particularly the paedophilia.

?
It's about culture shock, so funny furrin habits will be mentioned.

The way men treat women in other countries.
Not saying it's great here btw.
Argentina - you literally get followed down the road like a dog in heat. It's absolutely feral. And they talk to you and expect you to actually go to one of those hotels where they rent by the hour. I absolutely don't look the type (whatever that is).
Also the way you are treated in places like Egypt.
I was offered a job in the Middle East on about an eighth of my UK salary "because you are married and your husband will look after you". No thanks.
I could go on.

Oh, I thought it was Japan where you couldn't do that.

1970s apartheid in South Africa. Facilities segregated and designated for blacks, coloureds, Indians and whites.

1980s Moscow - shortages of major foodstuffs but champagne and caviar on tap.

My first time in San Diego. I couldn’t believe the amount of homeless people. There were hundreds of little tents on the banks of the railway line. Also seeing lots of drugged up people lying in the streets. The difference between rich and poor was huge.

I dom't see any hate speech ? Just people discussing the cultural differences they've encountered. You can always report if you are offended

I remember in the middle east my husband and I wanted to get on a bus, but women had to get on the bus first and sit at the front, then the men who sat at the back!

😂😂😂 America - Land of the Free* unless you live in a neighbourhood with an HOA in which case everything you do is determined by other people from how you dry your laundry, to what time your trash goes outside, to when your gardener comes, to what colour you paint your front door etc etc etc.

There was (very weak) beer served at school for kids in Belgium until the 70s.

Rural China - toddlers not wearing nappies just bottomless trousers and doing their business.

San Francisco - the acceptance of drink driving. It just wasn’t as taboo as in Ireland.

Granted both of these were about 15 years ago so it has probably changed.

What happens if you get lots of runny catarrh and can't get to a bathroom? Do you literally just let it drop from your nose, dripping everywhere? That is pretty unhygienic and grim to be honest 😬

How it's "classy" for women to have a glass of wine. In France, outside a meal, only alcoholics do that.