Expats, tell me what aspect or social norm of your new country was strange to you?

[AjasLipstick]

I am a Brit in Oz and for me, the hardest thing to get used to was Sunday trading hours being like the UK in the 70s.

The weirdest thing was how much less formal people are...kids are dressed very informally and parties for children never have kids dressed up in party dresses but in shorts and t shirts. I like it now I'm used to it though.

oh, and how the pool closed during the winter because at 25 degrees c it is "too cold to swim"

British in France here.

• Saying “bonjour” to everyone, all the time. When you get in the lift at work, when someone else gets in the lift, when you go into a shop (and “au revoir” when you leave”), when you pay for something, when you pass your neighbours on the stairs. All the time.

• The long lunch breaks and constant coffee breaks. Eating at your desk would be seriously frowned upon. Snacking in general is frowned upon. You have a two or even three course lunch in the Work canteen with your colleagues.

• Sunday trading hours and (worse) shops and banks closing at lunchtime. My bank is open from 9:00 to 12:45 and 2:15 to 5:00 pm. WHY do they close for two and a half hours over lunch to make sure there is no time office workers can get there during their lunch break? It is a mystery. The exception to this rule is the post office, which seems to be open until 7pm every day.

• It is totally acceptable to order nothing but tap water in a restaurant, but many French people will only drink bottled water at home. My husband does this. He’ll drink tap water when we go to a restaurant, but not at home. Drives me mental.

• You generally can’t check your bank balance at a cash point unless it’s the bank you bank with, and sometimes not even then. Often cash points will not give you the option to withdraw less than €40 and then it will give you a €20 and two €10s. Why?!

• Needing your passport to do anything at the bank, even when they know perfectly well who you are. No other form of ID will do.

• The strikes. Oh god, the strikes. There will be train strikes for two days per week between the beginning of April and the end of June.

• Bank holidays. There are more of them, but they are fixed on a specific day, so if they fall on a Saturday or Sunday, it’s just too bad.

• August. Everyone takes the whole of August off. If you don’t, you’re considered weird. Even if you don't have children so you have no need to go away during school holidays, people expect you to take August off, and you get no brownie points for being the one who stays in the office to man the fort. Shops will close for an entire month, whole sections of the train network will shut down, and you can’t get a bikini wax before your beach holiday because all the beauty salons are closed.

• No one drinks fresh milk. You can get it in the supermarket but only foreigners buy it. French people drink tiny coffees. They don’t know how to make tea.

@FinallyHere

I guess it depends where you live. Regarding public transportation it also depends where exactly you are at. The most touristy stations do get announcement in both English and German but many others don't (including mine!), yes it's very easy to find people who speak English (though again it depends) but the first time I visited Germany as a tourist I spoke no German whatsoever and was rather confused going to museums and other touristy places and often finding a lack of information in English.

I totally agree that people should learn the local language. English isn't my native language yet I speak it along with French, Spanish and Italian (the local languages of the places I have lived in) and while I have been in Germany for about a year, I am still learning so yes it does mean I still rely a lot on English. That's because I haven't been here for too long and aren't fluent in German that I noticed the lack of English informations in some museum /touristy places which is a shame because you can't really expect everyone to be fluent in German and it does mean you don't make the most of those historical places (in my book).

I don't expect everything to be available in English, it's Germany and I expect people to mostly speak German so my "rant" is only linked to some touristy places who don't offer much information in English limiting a bit the experience you end up having there. That's all.

Good on you for sticking to learning German, it's quite a complicated language (definitely the hardest amongst the ones I have had to learn) so it's definitely commendable!

JumpingFrogs, I did the cable car over the Rhein in Cologne once with my just teenage daughter. There is a spa at the far end where people go to sunbathe etc, so as the cable car "comes in to land" you are presented with elderly chaps with all on show, legs akimbo etc. I think dd was a bit bemused by my insistence of the brilliant view of the cathedral (far in the distance)....

Whoever mentioned the German moving help thing - yes, I've done my fair share of hoiking things up endless steep flights of stairs in liftless turn-of-the-century Berlin tenements for friends. I once even worked for a (small) company that moved offices like that rather than paying for a firm. (They were genuinely a lovely lot, not exploitative at all). We've moved a fair bit and always paid for firms, though, because I'm too British to feel I could ask anyone

The desperation to speak English with me drives me mad, although I am unfailingly polite about it. I particularly love the ones who correct my English because they are sure they know better. Always with an air of incredible assurance. WTAF?

😂 I remember this from being an exchange student in Germany in the late 90's. Our English teacher insisted that "metaphor"was pronounced "Met-Afa" and was not having it when I said otherwise!

Spain
Everyone is always super late for everything (if they even arrive at all) c

Oops finger slipped 😂
If you call an electrician around you’ll be lucky if they arrive 2 hours late.
Also, constant bank holidays.
& oil with bread/ toast.
Everyone has motorbikes too.
The cost of cars is a lot more.
Driving long distances is the norm.
Gibraltar- everyone smokes. Like everyone.

@shesalady I am in Massachussets, how about you? I got a ticket the first week I was here for parking facing the wrong way on the road. I couldnt believe there could be such a stupid rule. Then I saw how badly everyone drove and realised it was to help them figure out if the road was one way!

How about the spelling differences. It makes me cringe everytime I have to write color, or realize. Thank goodness for spell check

Brit in Oz:

complete bafflement at having to park same way as traffic flow- even if it involves a U turn (although it does make sense).
Things open on Christmas Day AND trains run- fabulous.
The chattiness in shops although now I find UK shops very abrupt on my trips there.
Shops open on Sunday beyond 4/5pm- but I realise when visiting UK that I always need something at 6pm!
Primary schools just open the doors and kids flood out, seeking a parent like a heat seeking missile. Or they walk home on their own. Or wander off with another parent (known to them) if parent is not there yet. Very common (as a parent) to get a call saying ' can you take Johny home as I am stuck at work/in traffic'. Schools have no part in this process.
Teachers at primary called by their first name.
If you visit someone, you take food. Always take a plate.
Dental visits require a small mortgage.
If a word is too long use the first syllable and add 'o"...eg rego (registration for your car), servo (Service station)
A park is either a parking spot or a place where children play but don't get the two confused.
Thongs are not knickers up the crack of your bum.
doctors and dentists all have the title 'doctor' but you call them ' 'George' or "jean'- none of this title lark.

I am now perpetually confused when I visit UK.

My dad grew up in NZ and still thinks shoes and long trousers are a massive formality and absolutely not compulsory for children.
I'm not sure he actually understands that people buy shoes for primary aged children.

He wore flip-flops at my wedding. In the U.K.

It's totally cool but he can't comprehend the price of school shoes because they're optional in his mind. :/

banana my cousin put on Facebook "don't whipersnip in thongs " with a picture of a bloodied limb.

Honestly I didn't know where to look. I've never felt so removed by the same language. :D

@SeaToSki I'm in Maine. I asked because our local town we have a ski hill that overlooks the ocean and we call it sea to ski!

I don't envy you driving wise living in Mass. They're the worst drivers I've ever come across. London drivers are perfect and polite compared!

Boston driving scares the everliving piss out of me.

Brit in NZ: flummoxing behaviours..

No parking on the other side of the road.

Paying on exit rather than asking for the bill and paying at table. Must better system imo, no waiting around but took an age to get used to.

Inability to queue: person behind you doesn't stand behind but to your side. As queue moves person sidles up meaning single file queue becomes a queue of 4 people wide.

Kiwi dip. Tinned cream and powdered onion soup. Obsessed with it. Ubiquitous at every gathering. They can get that to fuck! Horrible.

Optional shoes I think is absolutely lovely!

More:

Calling a 'parking place' a park. As in 'did you find a park okay?'

Takeaway always pluralised. Chinese Takeaways, Fish and Chip Takeaways

Everything shortened Rego for Registration (even spelled like that on official documents!). Maccas for McDonalds. DP and I needed something to clear the bathroom sink as it was running slow. He said 'bet it's called Drano'..... as a joke...

In Ethiopia people gasp to mean 'yes' or 'okay' which is quite unnerving until you get used to it

Another Brit in China - people are really blunt and direct and think nothing of commenting on your appearance and weight. Quite often going into shops, you will get told you are 'too fat' 'nothing will fit you here'. The clothing sizes are much much smaller.

Also shoe sizes are tiny - UK size 3 being the most popular size. Quite often told - 'nothing here for man size feet' .

You will be in a lift and hear people saying stuff like - 'you got so fat' and no-one batting an eyelid.

Is quite difficult to get used to at times...

Brit living in Aus.
All of the above, but the main thing I can’t get my head around after 8 years is the fact that you have to pay an invoice twice a year for schools, to cover school trips, sports lessons, recorder lessons, etc, PLUS we have to buy our own stationery! Everyone just accepts it, but to me it’s weird. —And— —expensive—

missbattenburg, yes those comments I can relate to!

I have lived in other countrys but India is the most challenging. But having a chuckle at what others have written about the others I also know about.

Having to spend usually 2 hours washing peeling and storing food when you have bought it, and being very careful of what you buy during monsoon season due to human contamination on the crops.

Weddings, ah weddings, been woken at 6.45am with the drumming/music that goes on until 10pm, so loud the windows shake.

The total lack of consideration for your neighbours with noise, whatever day or time it is. A wall was being knocked down at 8.30 at night then drilling, why not just do it during the working day?

Child labour, watching the children carry sacks of building material on new builds (held up with bamboo) makes me so sad.

I miss the UK reading this........

English in NZ.

• children, barefoot by choice
• obsession with (not very good) cars
• high street brothels
• in Auckland, bungalows that sprawl across sections, leaving no space for gardens or privacy
• panhandles leading to back sections that waste even more garden space
• a refusal to heat houses adequately in winter
• (Auckland again) an instinctive horror at spending money on improving transport, unless it's on roads
• compulsory "donations" for state schools
• tolerance of widespread child abuse due to cultural considerations

Actually I like it here, but these are the things that baffle me.

Kiwi dip. Tinned cream and powdered onion soup. Obsessed with it. Ubiquitous at every gathering. They can get that to fuck! Horrible.

And tinned asparagus wrapped in white bread with the crusts cut off. There is a whole genre of Kiwiana food that I advise all tourists to avoid if at all possible.

Lovely meat pies here though.

errr what Toad? tolerance of widespread child abuse due to cultural considerations sad

Also not sure what this means? panhandles leading to back sections that waste even more garden space

I agree with you on our shittily heated houses though.

Supermarket trading hours was weird one fro me in London. The frantic queuing and ransacked shelves at 4.30pm on Sunday evening. Supermarkets are just about 24/7 here.

DullandOld the criminal offence was assault and battery, not assault and buggery!

Irish in US:
Convenience of everything - shopping hours, drive through banking;
Right turns on red (see above);
Screens on windows to keep bugs out, and screen doors too;
Great heating in the cold weather, and AC in heat and humidity - my feet were warm all winter for the first time;
Hot water 24/7 [yeehah];
Every man for himself driving style, which I liked once I got used to it. I can drive with the best (worst?) of them now, day or night;
Ease of dealing with DMV for licence;
Horrible and completely unnecessary rudeness of Immigration officials;
Children expected to deal with their own (extensive and appropriate) winter wear - no parents allowed into school morning or afternoon;
No cultural snobbery - very wealthy people going to a baseball game and chowing down on hot dogs like everyone else, clapping and singing along to hits of the 60s and 70s, swigging beer out of Solo cups at BBQs, lack of formality;
Affection for teenagers, teens returning the favour;
No grafitti (a local quirk);
Great public facilities and community spirit (again, local observation);
Philanthropy - mind blowing amounts of money given away, raised by parish school at annual auction, expertise at running fundraising events;
T-ball, the greatest American pastime of them all;
No uniforms in schools;
Everyone wearing appropriate cold weather clothing, footwear, outerwear;
Drivers ed in schools at age 15;
Positive attitude.

Horrible fashions and hairstyles - I left Dublin and arrived in the midwest where people were horrified if I wore black, grown women wore big bows in their hair and cutesy dresses, so much hairspray, huge shoulders, big gold tone buttons, red lipstick whether it suited the woman or not. It was like the set of 'Dallas'. Women wore 'pantyhose' to work despite the fact that it was in the high 90sF and incredibly humid. Back then, Americans knew absolutely nothing about Ireland (or anywhere else for that matter) beyond impressions from films like 'The Quiet Man' - I was asked if we had phones in Ireland. I was asked if all the blacks in Ireland were in the army as they were in the US. I was asked what the Irish did for Thanksgiving. Gobsmacked...

Oh dear God, YYY, Rainbunny - the Liptons tea.