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 😅

This. I lived in a small town in northern France in my early twenties. I got followed in cars, flashed at, and generally hounded by men on the street to the point that I gave up my job and moved back to the uk. It was so liberating to return to England and be able to go running in shorts alone and not feel like I was about to be raped.

The UK.

As a Spanish kid we learned at school age 9 (pre globalisation, mid 1980s) that the reson why we had many tourists in Spain was because we have very sunny weather. I asked the teacher, "but surely they must have a sunny summer, summer means sunny weather" and she said "no, good weather in the UK or Ireland is not guaranteed in the summer". I actually didn't believe her.

We had English as foreign language and in our English book there was a pic of a typical English lunch which was sandwiches and crisps and a cup of tea. I was amused by this and thought it was not possible for people to have what we considered "party food" every day for lunch.

Fast forward my early 20s- I arrived in the UK in the late 1990s to realise it was all very true. Summers are mostly rainy even though are called summers. And people really appreciate a nice sunny day, much more than in Spain. Also true that people eat "party food" for lunch!
And it all became very normal after living there for a while.

And France up to the early 2000s at least. They call it a Turkish toilet!

Foreign…but majority French speaking in the bars I was in?

I was the foreign one in this context, being in the less touristy, more residential part.

Going to Benidorm 😧

I was pulled over by the cops in a Texan city for walking.

Everyone drives everywhere in Texas, so someone reported me to the cops for walking, not Jaywalking I might add, from one huge mall to another huge shop. They thought I had a mental illness. When I told them I was British and used to walking everywhere the cops eventually let me go.

When we were there, the pavements had tiles with 'Hond in de Goot' - dogs in the gutter - and I don't recall the shit being an issue.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/seejayneblog/496372731

Mumsnet.

Overall it's diminished I'd say even if still prevalent in certain areas. Old buses used to have 'no gobbing' signs, but in my lifetime I've never seen someone spit on the bus.

I live in the US now, having emigrated from the UK.

Biggest culture shock has been how much better customer service is here. It's night and day. And not just in places where customers tip (better customer service is often attributed to tipping culture).

At my bank, they sort things out for me there and then, in-branch. No sending me away and telling me to call a number (looking at you Barclays).

My morning coffee is to-go so there's no tipping but I still receive excellent service and a smile at 6:30am! In London, baristas would barely look at you, let alone make conversation or smile.

Generally, everyone here seems happier and more positive, despite their lives being qualitatively no better than those of people in the UK, in general.

It's culture driven, and I love it.

A few years ago I was in a tapas bar in London with a group of 30 and 40 something female friends. All married and enjoying ourselves whilst husbands were at home with the children. An Australian man approached me and asked who we were and what the occasion was. I explained it was no special occasion just a girls night out with the men in charge at home. He seemed genuinely mystified that such an outlandish thing should happen and said he'd never heard of such a thing in Australia.

I still think he must have been pulling my leg.

Also as a southerner, a night out in Leeds one February. It was bitterly cold and I was wrapped up like an Eskimo with layers, a down jacket, hat, gloves, UGGs etc. I was amazed to see all the young clubbers barely dressed in tiny body con dresses, bare legs and sandals. I'd heard of this phenomenon but had assumed it was an urban myth.

I'm not sure where you were but I have spoken to many expats who shared the same thought as me. Maybe in some fancy wine bar in Paris it's a thing, but anywhere else in the country people don't order a glass of wine, it's just not a thing. You'll find people in bars in villages drinking wine, just as a cheap way to get alcohol. Classy, it isn't.

Coming back to the UK after first trip to India, I'd prepared myself for it being, well India, and when I came back six months later I had largely normalised it so how quiet and ordered our roads were on the way back from Heathrow and how Tesco was clean, well stocked etc, was much more of a shock than India itself.

Off topic, but that line "land of the free", lyric written by a slave owning tyrant francis scott key, with the 3rd verse (no longer sung) excoriating the slaves who fled their masters plantations (18 from george washington's) to join the British in order to gain their freedom.

Never has a lyric been more preposterous. It's the opposite.

Nobody should be singing that slave advocating anthem given owning a human being is monstrous but it's especially bizarre when a black* person does. Their enslaved African ancestors would be spinning in their graves.

*Black people have their own anthem "Lift every voice and sing".

During the war washington hired a slave catcher in an attempt to recover his escaped slaves, but those who got away managed to sail out of New York harbour to their freedom.

What do you do with them them?

Moving to England as a 9 year old. I was used to Deutschmarks and Pfennigs, and I had to get used to getting my pocket money in these weird coins called Pounds and Pennies 🤷‍♀️

Binge drinking is bad, but levels of alcoholism are not among the highest countries in the world.

@TheLurpackYears
I've lived here all my life and never once seen this! I'd find that quite odd if I saw it!

We had a lovely Ukrainian family living with us, and Mum would take the kids out for a walk to the park in the evening after dark, and I’d always feel really overbearing when I’d try to explain that it wasn’t safe. I think she just thinks I’m completely neurotic. 😂

To be fair, living so closely with people of a different culture really opened my eyes, and made me question a lot of our own British cultural behaviours that I’d never given any thought to before.

Met up with 4 of my female American friends in Atlanta for a meal. I was gobsmacked they were discussing the merits of the guns they owned, like I would about my mobile phone i.e. it had to fit in their 'purse'.
What an eye opener!

New York. The lack of facilities for disabled people was awful. The attitudes towards disabled people was also terrible. I always thought the U.K. was poor at that until we went to New York.

North America

I was coming to say that. I’d travelled in other parts of North Africa and was unprepared for the amount of harassment even though I covered my body and sometimes my hair.

I will second that!
I had exactly the same experience, it really soured the trip and although it's a fascinating place, I vowed never to return. Dirty, filthy men!!

At nearly 80, that sounds good to me! Especially the being in France bit! I love France.