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.

Another US one - it's changed now with Starbucks, but there was a time not too long ago when a young American was more likely to drink beer regularly, or even hard liquor before tasting coffee. Meanwhile Irish babies were being fed very milky tea in their bottles, and I was not the only one in my class by a long shot who used to have a cup of tea with breakfast heading out to primary school.

I also noticed how American women drank copious amounts of diet Coke/Pepsi. This was absolutely not a thing in Ireland in the late 80s.

Ruby I agree about Drs appointments. I was so shocked when I made an appointment in OZ and the GP sat talking to me in an unhurried way....it was my first appointment here and so she wanted to get a full picture of my medical history (uncomplicated) and get to know me

Same with making appointments...phone up, they ask when you want to go, you tell them and it's arranged!

Also the idea that dental treatment is all expensive even for kids isn't true.

I was worried about my DD;s need for braces...turns out we get some government help and DD's braces will only cost us a total of 1000 dollars.

I know that's still a considerable amount but it's far less here somehow. We can manage it.

BitOutOfPractice - it took me a while to get used to Dutch bluntness! I rather like the way that they can say something very direct, no one takes offence and everyone moves on with the issue cleared up. But it is very un-English - they don't even apologise when saying the blunt thing!

I was told that it was either one or three kisses in NL, but never two: one for casual acquaintances and people you see frequently, three for closer friends and family. Did I mis-understand?

dutch bluntness & british backhandedness can make for great debates

LoveInTokyo - to each their own! There are loads of things I enjoy in the UK but I much prefer French cheese (and so does my Indian husband) and my 6yrs old asked me last time we were in France why I had ever left as the food was soooo good LOL to be frank she is a very keen meat eater and we are veggies at home so she definitely enjoys a bit of rural France :)
English cheese can be good yes, I would never turn good cheese down. But after 15yrs in the UK I still prefer French cheese. It's a question of taste and what you're being brought up to like as well.

I mentioned earlier that the fetishisation of the NHS is one of the things about the UK that baffles me. Another thing is that whenever the effectiveness of the NHS is questioned, there is a flurry of responses that "its worse in the US".

Errr.... Are you aware that there are am awful lot of other countries beside the US, with good public health provision, that do not use the NHS-type system?

@OlennasWimple I've only ever been kissed 3 times, even in a first meeting. Then again I am irresistible

Oh yes, love the bluntness too. It's a very direct language spoken by very direct people and I love it. No English awkwardness or misunderstanding

Italy's been done to death on this thread already, but one of the things I found oddest when my son started school here was that all children (boys and girls alike) have to wear a smock, right through from nursery to the end of primary school.

i2.wp.com/www.lenuovemamme.it/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/bambini-con-grembiule.jpg

That looks very Potteresque!

China. Everyone carried flasks of hot water around and no one drank cold water as it was considered bad for the body. It took me awhile to adjust but I love it and even now hate drinking cold water. Of course today every second person in oz carries a reusable coffee cup with hot beverage and no one bats an eyelid when I ask for hot water instead of cold, but 20 years ago it was very different.

Germany, but have lived here for over 30 years. plus 6 months as an au pair before university and 6+ months as a student.
Things I found odd were: needing to rest your non-spoon-holding hand on the table, at the wrist, when eating soup.
Not using your knife to cut potatoes (there was a reason for this as the starch in the potatoes used to tarnish knives in the past).
Lack of ability to queue used to annoy me, but doesn't any more.
Driving, hmm, well I have a fairly big, high-powered car, so most people get out of my way (although I am not an aggressive driver). I do now find it amusing if "lads" try to overtake me in souped-up Golfs with loud exhausts. Sometimes I let them and laugh, other times I put my foot down a little bit - no chance matey!
I like the handshaking.

unicorn Oh God yes, I remember visiting Shanghai at the height of summer and it was soooo humid and we couldn’t get a cold drink for love nor money. We were with a Chinese speaking friend and everywhere we went, he told us that people were like ‘ohhhh because they are foreign and foreigners don’t know cold water is bad for you’ and everyone would go ‘ohhhhhh!!!’

France produces a lot of wine and the UK doesn't, so obviously you'll find wine from all over the world in British shops.

Interesting to read about the warm drinking water in China! In our local Chinese restaurant (frequented mainly by Chinese) you have to specifically request cold water to drink, otherwise it will be warm. Now I understand why!

Brit in Switzerland.

Wine is always served at an event. Even if it is held in the morning. At school meetings, at kids birthday parties, at church... wine, wine, wine.

The lengths people will go to keep things clean. We arrived with the attitude 'we've put whatever we don't want in the bin, our duty in done.' But here, we think about the next step, clean up our mess and dispose of it responsibly.

Kissing. We kiss everyone three times to say hello and then goodbye. Even after 15 years, I still give good friends 1kiss and keep three for formality as otherwise I would be stuck there for everything!

About English people kissing: I grew up in London, and left the UK years back. Deffo more kissing when I visit now (and not just family who, I imagine, are pleased too see me).

Ilovetea33

Obviously.

But it would still be nice to have some choice when you go to a French supermarket. No wonder the French are so narrow minded when it comes to foreign cuisine.

Do the French not like Argentinian wine or British cheese because they can’t get it at the supermarket? Or does the supermarket not stock it because the French won’t buy it?

Probably a bit of both.

Oh NZ again. I forgot about the preponderance for toploading washing machines. Front loaders are considered with some suspicion but Front loader dryers are fine. Plus the dryer is always wall mounted above the washer with the buttons at the bottom..

That's so funny about the Chinese and water. I had Chinese house guests last year and they were neurotic about getting bottles of hot water each morning. They also went on and on about "in China we only eat healthy food" all the while tucking into endless bags of sweets and family size packs of crisps lol!

The Swiss wine thing is funny because at the same time as they always serve wine, average glass size is about 75ml. I'm usually the ungrateful half foreigner muttering about how do you know it's not just a dirty glass...

Back on the German stuff, the injunction to always keep the kids in snow gear until it's like 20 degrees... my kids came home from Kindergarten the other day with a booklet about speaking up about abuse and neglect. In the section about neglect it actually had a bit about " I have the right to be dressed appropriately for the weather" and a little cartoon of a kid barely visible under a mountain of fleece

Nakedavenger yes upside down dryers! Tumble dryers can be wall hung either right way up or upside down - I desperately wanted one in the UK but they aren’t available here.

You don’t have to crouch down for a top loader and wall hung dryer, and you can add forgotten bits to the washing. Also much quicker to wash clothes. I still regard my front loader with a moderate level of suspicion

When I transited through HKIA a few weeks ago, I noticed free hot water drinking taps and crowds of (mostly older) Chinese filling up from them - I thought it was to make flasks of tea. I know now!

@rubybleu oh I totally get it now. The top loaders have gallons of capacity and actually seem to get clothes cleaner. Main problem is having to half fall inside it to get last tiny sockette out. However our UK ways means in our new house we got a new fangled front loader. Visitors come to look at it and ask questions 😁

Love my upside down dryer. Fisher and Paykel obvs!

Australia is the same for wine (for obvious reasons! They make so much that imported wine would cost too much to be cost efficient.)

My Aussie husband loves the variety of wine in Britain!

Do NZ fridges still have butter conditioners?

Stick, to be fair, Australia is pretty damn far from everywhere else. But France neighbours (and has completely free trade with) several other wine producing countries, and can you find Italian, Spanish or German wine in the supermarket? Can you fuck.

Haha.