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Living overseas

Whether you're considering emigrating or an expat abroad, you'll find likeminds on this forum.

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Original poster

Just for a laugh.... can you remember the things that identified you as a new migrant??

55 replies

chloeb2002 · 03/06/2011 02:50

soooo. i was in the supermarket today when a very english lady asked for stamps.... the look from the sales staff face when they said.. no we are a supermarket not a post office was classic.. it set me thinking... my blunders were.. thongs at a golf club... who TF would know you were wearing them.... and parking on the wrong side of the road facing traffic, when a man asked what i was doing .... followed by was i eupopean.... urmmm yup... so anyone else had any funnies???

OP posts:

MadamDeathstare · 04/06/2011 15:07

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

RockStockandTwoOpenBottles · 04/06/2011 15:11

When DD3 was born and people would (inevitably, natch) stop me to coo over her they would ALWAYS assume she was a boy, regardless of the fact that she actually looked like a girl from the very start, and was sometimes in pinkish clothes/babygros. It took me about 6 months to realise that it was because she doesn't have her ears pierced. Here ALL little girls have them done within the first couple of months.

RockStockandTwoOpenBottles · 04/06/2011 15:13

Actually I'm in Spain, although aware of Cañadas over there too. It means gully I think, doesn't it?

MadamDeathstare · 04/06/2011 20:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Weta · 04/06/2011 21:16

When I first moved to France I went to a pharmacy and asked for film for my camera (this was 15 years ago). They looked at me like I was an alien, though it probably didn't help that the word for film is the same as the word for dandruff :) When they finally figured out what I wanted I got the 'but this is a pharmacy' response, as in, why aren't you in a photo shop...

gregssausageroll · 04/06/2011 21:27

getting out of the car at the drive through bottle shop.

MrsGubbins · 05/06/2011 06:54

asking people to call me MrsGubbins and not maaaam
not wearing a jacket in Winter - doesn't get under 20* in the day
getting freaked out by the stares and over obvious eye contact in certain areas

oh the joys of the ME!

begonyabampot · 08/06/2011 23:41

when I had my buggy at lifts, I'd stand back to let the people out before I tried to enter. Big mistake as the done thing was for those waiting to enter to rush in as soon as the doors opened whether people wanted to get off or not. Soon learned so position myself and buggy and use it as a battering ram, especially when i had been there first in the queue.

On a visit back to the UK I asked the girl at the Asda checkout for 200 pounds cash back and she gave me a . Overseas you get up to 500 dollars at the checkout.

acatcalledbob · 09/06/2011 01:50

Trying to pack my own shopping at the checkout (Singapore)
Looking for a taxi with seatbelts (Azerbaijan)
Not taking bribes at work (Azerbaijan)
Giving way to merging traffic (Singapore)
Offering my cleaning lady a coffee (Singapore)
Saying "thank you" and expecting one back in shops (Paris)
Being surprised at being asked to stay at work until the task was completed (often midnight) on a regular basis (Singapore)

I'm sure there's more ....

Tortoiseonthehalfshell · 09/06/2011 02:39

When we first moved to Australia (1990) my Mum tried to paid for a week's groceries on her credit card. The checkout girl looked at her like, what sort of lowlife debt riddled scrounger are you to buy your food on credit?

'Snormal now, luckily.

madwomanintheattic · 09/06/2011 05:55

i still sometimes go to the passenger door of the car with the intention of driving off down the road.

i have mastered the technique of fiddling intentionally with the empty passenger seat (or putting my car keys on it ) before closing the door and walking casually round to the driver's side. or sometimes i don't get as far as opening the door, but glance through the window, see no steering wheel, swear loudly and do the face/ palm thing a lot. this is not as inconspicuous, it has to be said. i just look like a slightly odd woman that likes to talk to herself and walk around her car in circles. and seems quite cross.

lavenderbongo · 09/06/2011 06:02

Being schocked that people in shops talk to you just to be friendly. Being twice as shocked that people you pass in the street and don't know will nod and say hallo to you.
My nieghbours want to talk to me and invite me round for coffee - this was again a huge culture shock.
Its OK to walk around in the summer and go shopping with no shoes on - in fact it is quite normal to get your weekly shop done sans shoes!
The car you drive and the size of your house and the clothes you wear are not used to judge you. A very pleasant change.

PenguinArmy · 09/06/2011 06:21

I have been in the states nearly a year but with the amount of work you have to do I don't spend a lot of money (DH does all the shopping)

I looked in my purse, wondered what foreign money I had and realised it was just a nickel. I still ask the shop attendants if this

Colleagues asked me what I call a band-aid, and absolutely cracked up when with a serious face I said plaster.

Still can't go the right side of the car (to be fair we don't have one) and because we have so many one way streets the traffic still gets to me.

Driving round the UK at Christmas was trickier than I expecting.

The look on the OBs face when I said I didn't want a internal exam for first pg appointment and my look when he said I should have a smear test.

We're going back to the UK soon and it will be interesting to see how many things we have got used to.

MmeLindor. · 09/06/2011 07:58

What is a plaster in US then?

Being invited to a party with "Buffet Canadien" which I thought was going to be things like moose and maple syrup and wondering why the English host was doing a Canadian Buffet.

Being very embarrassed to realise that it meant "pot luck" buffet, ie. everyone brings a dish to share, and I had brought nothing.

Asking to have an ice cream at a German wine festival My (futurethoughIdidn'tknowitatthetime) MIL looked at me as if I had grown horns.

Suggesting we go for a walk after Xmas dinner to "aid the digestion" and being told, "In Germany we drink a Schnapps".

Reading the ingredients of a Long Island Ice Tea and seeing Himbeergeist, and thinking that it sounded like a fruity cocktail then almost falling off my chair when I drank it as it is really really potent.

coansha · 09/06/2011 08:42

the Germany remark reminded me of when I live in Austria, out with friends(all British) one of my mates could not understand why the barman was giving her 3 glasses of wine every time she asked for one, perplexed I went with her and as she was a non German speaker, she just kept asking for DRY white wine, which took some explaining to her that DRY sounds like Drei, which is 3 in German. oh bless her.
And like MmeLindor, have been to 2 BBQ's here in Oz before I was informed we were supposed to bring out own meat, very odd.

MmeLindor. · 09/06/2011 08:56

Oh, we did that in our first trip to Germany. Drei/Dry white wine.

Had to drink them of course, would have been impolite otherwise.

Bubbaluv · 09/06/2011 09:05

Expecting people at an intersection to rely on the road rules to decide who should go and who should stop rather than all smiling, nodding and politely waving each other through and thereby ensuring that no one can drive through with any real confidence (rural England).
Waiting for the Waitrose checkout chick to pack my bags - gets you eye-rolls from everyone in the queue as well as the staff. (England)
Asking for a slice of lime in my Corona (Mexico)
Ordering a glass of champagne as part of a normal round of after work drinks (apparently they thought I was terribly posh) (England)
My friend (a fellow Aussie) mentioned to her friends at work (in the UK) that she was going to take thongs to Glastonbury to avoid getting a fungal infection in the showers. They just looked a bit shocked and told her to just avoid sitting down.

Bubbaluv · 09/06/2011 09:08

Oh and trying to sit in the front passenger "seat" of a black cab!

Halbwahrheiten · 09/06/2011 09:10

I still almost get run over when I try to cross the road because I look the wrong way.

My children are always presumed to be cold because they run around in tshirts, without hats and socks when it's 20 degrees outside.

forgetting that shops are not open on sundays, ever.

mousymouse · 09/06/2011 10:05

halbwarhrheiten do they wear socks? I once had a comment from the "granny-police" that my child must wear socks. it was well above 30 degrees in the summer.

MmeLindor. · 09/06/2011 14:13

Haha at the "Granny Police". I was soundly berated for not putting a hat on DD. It was 30°C and she was in her pram.

QuintessentialOldMoo · 09/06/2011 14:16

..... Coming to Britain and expecting people to stop and listen to my reply, upon saying to me "how are you?"

....Returning to Norway and expect a brief reply to my casual "how are you?" rather than somebody's life story.

biancacbwantsaquietlife · 09/06/2011 14:19

Are ther lots of you in south Africa here?

My main faux pas are trying to pack bags myself, tipping the car guards - I know so many rude people here who don't, wanting to raise my children myself, questioning some of the bRmy things the principal at ds1's school says, teaching him to read using phonics and at an age younger than 7, expecting decent levels of service and forgetting the golden rule here -TIA this is Africa...

Halbwahrheiten · 09/06/2011 20:23

mousy my children wear socks when they want to, or in LOs case when they stay on their feet. But I keep getting told that DC1's persistent cough is caused by the fact that I let him run around without socks all the time. And we are not really talking about the deepest, darkest winter here.

having people look at you as if you were mad when you talk about Snow Days when there's an inch of snow.

thanksamillion · 09/06/2011 20:35

I get the socks thing too Halb and the 'they'll get ill from drinking cold drinks in the winter' and the 'they'll get ill from not wearing a hat'.

If I think someone's about to ask if my DCs cold I now pre-empt them by asking if their DCs are too hot

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