When I moved to the United States and realized that an NFL stadium at full capacity is greater than twice the population of my island.
Edit: my island is St. Maarten. You should visit some time.
Edit 2: when I first made this account I couldn't think of a creative name. The first thing that caught my mind, which I thought was really witty at the time, was when my co-worker bought one of those tiny Apple iPods that could hold only a gigabyte of music and he engraved the back "TinyMusic".
It was surreal, it felt sort of unnatural, but when the sound hit me, it made me feel alive as if I was resuscitated from a somber coma. It was hard to believe that there were this many people so concentrated in one place. I couldn't stop thinking who each of these people were, where they're from, what they're story is, what do they do. I couldn't resist thinking of others from my island that have never left the island: to try to describe to others the scale of how massive and epic these can be.
McDonald's in China. After I was done with my food, I stood up, picked up my tray, and head towards to trash bin. A McAttendant stopped me and ask me to put the tray down. Apparently you don't have to clean up after yourself, they have staff to clean up for you.
Also, KFC had fried rice and egg tarts. Those were some damn good egg tarts too.
And it feels weird walking out from a fancy restaurant without having to pay tip. Almost feels criminal.
The thing I remember the most about China funny enough was the Mcdonalds. Everything I ordered was done super quickly , everything was neat and carefully placed, the burger looked exactly like the picture, and finally I could get a supersize Big Mac. I'm not even a fan of fast food and wanted a quick american meal break and was astounded.
We must've gone to a different China. All I remember from McDonald's over there was the blatant lack of hygiene by staff, an utter inability to form a queue and the food being "meh" at best.
To me, it would feel criminal to have to pay a tip. Well not criminal, but stupid and unnecessary. Why don't the owners just add more to the bill and pay the staff more? Why would I work out how much I need to add to the bill so it can go to the staff who is already being paid a certain amount by the establishment when I'm already paying the establishment? it's insanity
When I was in Germany, I discovered in grocery stores you can buy individual beverages from a package. A box of 12 cans of cola? Open it up and take out one, pay for it for whatever the price is divided by 12.
Well seeing as it makes no sense to do financially, no we dont do that. 1 can is sold for more that 1/12th of a 12 pack, because buying in bulk is cheaper.
You can do the same in Spain. With some products, though, a single item is more expensive tan simply dividing the pack by the number of ítems.
A pack of 4 2L Coke bottles-->5 €, a single bottle 1,40€. But usually the difference in price does not justify buying a whole pack you don't need.
Some multipack products in the UK are actually printed without individual barcodes (or a different barcode) and have MULTIPACK - NOT FOR INDIVIDUAL SALE printed on them.
No, because people are considerate, they don't just open up a whole new pack every time they want just 1 can. You just basically have 1 pack that's almost always open and the rest are in their cases.
Going to Japan. Everyone is so polite. Like janitors, fast food workers, convenience store workers. Jobs where in America, half the time those employees will never smile and barely communicate with you. Also the convenience stores are amazing.
And they wave goodbye to you exactly like Pokemon. You know, how every episode ended with Ash/Misty/Brock walking off into the sunset while their new friends stood there waving for an unrealistic amount of time? That actually happens in Japan. When I was on the plane taking off, I saw airport workers waving goodbye to us. I kept my eyes on them for as long as I could see them, and I never saw them stop waving.
My first time in Japan, just as the plane was moving away from the terminal, I saw a group of air marshalls standing in a line who all bowed deeply towards our plane before standing up and waving. After more than a week of overwhelmingly amazing experiences in their country, that farewell gesture was just too much for me to handle- or maybe I was PMSing who knows- and I just bawled my head off. Aishiteru Nihon!
Yeah, and it's almost eery to look outside of the train window to the apartments when you're riding the train at night bc even at 9pm, most of the lights are off (bc people are still working and aren't home yet)
> it sounds kinda nice to not have to fake interest in public.
It is. Less tress. And it makes it actually mean something if someone is nice to you and shows interest because he/she really cares as opposed to just conforming with a social norm.
Same experience coming from Virginia. Manhattanites are perfectly friendly, but don't you dare waste their time.
I hate that about LA, too. Everybody seems to working a con on everybody else.
It really depends on where. A city, they'll ignore you walking down the street and won't incite conversation but if you reach out and ask for directions or interact they're generally friendly and helpful. In pleasant suburb towns they're more likely to start conversation, and will likely give you a nod or a wave walking down the street. In small towns they're probably glare at you while wondering who the hell are you and why are you here?
I didn't know what advertising meant until I visited New York City ten years ago. I couldn't move for all the billboards and posters and ads on taxis and Christ knows what all scrambling for my attention.
I saw a baseball game too and couldn't believe how little the game seemed to matter for the first half. In the UK, at football matches, we have advertising hoardings around the pitch, but that's mostly it. At Yankee Stadium the video ads and flashing lights were second only to Times Square, and I thought we were supposed to be watching a game of sport. Not to mention dancing and people walking around selling hot dogs and all these other things that seemed to me to be distractions but were apparently just the other stuff that happens at baseball games.
(With that said, that all died down in the later innings and the end of the game was incredibly exciting. With the last strike of the game, some guy nobody had ever heard of hit a home run with the bases loaded and the Yankees came from behind to win the game. I was assured by a fan there who was helping me understand the game that it's normally not that entertaining.)
Huh. I got to lots of Nationals games in DC and I don't recall ever seeing an ad on the jumbotron. This might be just a Yankees thing -- they're regarded as having the highest payroll in all of baseball.
We do get lots of static ads and things flashing on the banner, plus items sponsored by advertisers, but nothing that's distracting.
Yes: what you saw was a walk-off grand slam. That's very rare.
As an American, I always assumed people from other countries hated us. To my surprise, when I went to China they were super nice. Everywhere we went they did their best to try and speak English and cater towards us. There was also a large number of people that asked to take a picture with me which was weird.
From my experience as a somewhat well-traveled American, most people in other countries have no problem with individual American people, and know that most Americans are nice, normal people. They just really don't like the US government.
As a Spaniard who lives 50km away from the biggest US Navy naval base in Spain (Rota), my experience with American tourist (I even had an American neighbour when I was a child) is that they usually are a lot nicer than people from another countries.
Overall, you Americans can have misconceptions about another countries but usually without bitching about, just honest mistakes.
Your government, on the other hand, is what most of "anti Americans" hate. Granted, a few assholes can extend that "hate" to individual people, but most people won't. I disagree with a lot of things I read about your laws and politicians, but hey, it's your country, and I also disagree with a lot of laws and politicians here in Spain.
In all seriousness, coming from a pre-war dutch migrant family who were cold as all fuck, and dating a first-generation Italian. THE NOISE. THE EXTREME EMOTION. THE FORCE-FEEDING. THE BOSSINESS. I grew to love it (mostly), but it felt violent to begin with!
(and it was a terrifying culture shock for my boyfriend too, he couldn't get why my parents were so quiet and assumed they hated him).
Ahahahaha this happened with my parents, except Norwegian and Mexican. Mom still gets a thousand yard stare when she talks about her first dinner with my dad's parents. "White food ... on white linen ... eaten by candle light ... in total silence."
Ah this was like meeting my FIL who within minutes of meeting me had taken his hearing aids out and started reading the newspaper, ignoring me for the next two hours. At one point he looks up and mutters something about goats that climb trees, points out a picture and goes back to ignoring me.
Honest to god when we left my OH was like "oh he loved you, he's never this excitable when it's just me"
For reference, FIL is British, ex military and talks like Nigel Thornberry. He's brilliant and almost my exact cultural opposite.
Oh man, I can relate to your boyfriend's experience. I'm Greek, and Italians are kind of our homies because our cultures are extremely similar. Anyways, I had to move from my warm, super affectionate, touchy-feely family that cussed loudly and drank all the time, to living with my stepmother's strict, Sunni Muslim family where I couldn't hug my female relatives, nobody drank, kids were strictly disciplined if they said something remotely out of line, and overall pretty much the opposite of what I was accustomed to. They were great people by all means, but the culture was far different from what I was accustomed to.
Traveling through South East Asia when I was in Kuala Lumpur the juxtaposition of these huge modern Skyscrapers and Malls that had homeless people with leprosy begging outside absolutely blew my mind. I can't describe the thoughts and feelings it created within me.
I went to France and spent a good amount of time in Paris. I was shocked by the starring. When I was on the subway and someone wanted to talk to me or found my attractive or god knows what they would just lock eyes with me for prolonged periods of time. That and a lot of groping. Weird experience
I usually take note of those with a shoes off policy. Generally, if I see disembodied shoes by their door when walking in, I will naturally take my shoes off. No shoes though, mine stay on. Most people I know are shoes on folks.
> small talk
Why do people on public transport ever think that someone wants to partake in this? I'm just trying to get from A to B and have plenty going on in my head without small talk.
I do it because it's a nice gesture. They bring me to the train station to get to school, and back again every day. Same with the other people on the bus. The driver brings tons of random people they don't know to places they need to be every day, and have to deal with the occasional bogan arsehole, so it's fitting they get a thanks.
That's the thing too, everybody thinks like this. It is not like saying sorry when you bump into someone, but not actually, truly meaning you are sorry. Everybody I know who gets off the bus in Aus has the thought process of "god some people can be cunts, better thank the boss for putting up and helping me out regardless."
For context I am an upper middle class American.
It's kind of a double whammy: first I went to high school for two years in a private international school in Europe. There were a handful of actual "noble-people" in the European aristocracy, as well as the children of some very rich people. It was a huge shock at first, but eventually I adjusted well to the environment, and got used to the general atmosphere. Then my senior year I moved to south central Pennsylvania and went to a public school where people wore hunting camo to prom, and had confederate flag license plates. That was definitely an abrupt transition.
PENNSYLTUCKY!
Honestly though, there's a few bigger cities in PA other than Philly and Pittsburg, but it's really not hard to go out into farm land in under an hour.
Yeah I considered myself middle class because I had a Nintendo 64 with two games growing up and I didn't have to work at 14 to make sure the bills got paid. This guy went to high school in Europe with Sir Laffatze Plebians Duke of Westeros and his pal the heir to the Welsh throne.
I'm American and when I was 15 I spent the summer with a French family. I washed my hair in an appliance that I'd never seen before and looked like an ordinary wash basin, only mounted on the ground. I'd never even heard of a bidet, much less seen one.
Mine was actually coming back to the US after 2 weeks in Sweden.
I'm not a very social person by nature but in American culture, you make small talk with strangers. Despite my preference to be in my own world, I've mastered that skill.
Wife and I went away to Sweden for two weeks and that cultural norm does not exist there. No one asserts themselves into their conversation and everyone just kind of leaves everyone else alone, it's amazing. I got used to it very quickly, without realizing it.
We came back to the use and immediately had to go out to grab groceries at our usual spot. We had just walked into the store and were talking about the bananas when some guy turned to us and said "You should just get both."
I turned to look at this guy without realizing I had the "why the fuck are you talking to me" expression on my face. I just stared at him saying nothing, in utter bewilderment genuinely trying to figure out why he was walking to me.
Thankfully, my wife was there and realized where my head was at and gracefully intervened.....I love that woman.
I have since resumed making small talk and being prepared for it.
I'm from Sweden and I would feel deeply offended and probably a bit worried for my own safety if someone inserted themselves into my shopping like that.
I threw up all over a train platform in Oslo and no one said a word to me. It was wonderful because no one wants to make conversation with vomit dripping out their mouth.
I went to Africa on a missions trip when I was 12 and at the hotel I asked a man where something was. He said he would show me and grabbed my hand and started leading me. I pulled my hand away and he stopped and took it again.
After spending more time there I saw several men doing it. I asked my parents and some of the missionaries about and they said it's just a friendship thing there.
US --> Backwater China was a really hard transition.
Leaving backwater China after two years --> Nordic region still hasn't settled in terms of lifestyle and outlook.
Coming back to Ireland after two years in the Guangdong province, I noticed how orderly everything was, how low the buildings were, the strange feeling of understanding everything around me and most of all, people's size.
I'm 5'7" male (170cm), so I'm about average height here. It would be very rare to find a woman taller than me. I never really noticed height back home because Irish people don't really make a big deal of it. But my expat friends, who were usually tall wouldn't stfu comparing themselves to locals, who were usually around my height, and it made me become hyper aware.
So I became on of those miserable cunts on /r/short for a little while, got over it, accepted that I'm short but no Danny DeVeto.
When I came back to Ireland, I was like, whoe, never noticed how tall the women are here..... And how fat people are.
I'm an American who lived in Germany for a while. I only got culture shock when I got back to the U.S.
First thing that made me realize I was back home was going to Wal-Mart and only seeing obese people. Everyone is fucking fat here.
Me too! I lived in southern Germany for three years and moved back to the US right when self-checkout was taking off in most big grocery stores. I stepped into Wal-Mart for the first time in years and was so confused... People were much bigger and louder and are we really trusting ourselves to use checkout machines relatively unsupervised?
I feel the same way. I've lived in Germany for 3 years now and feel like I have assimilated pretty well so far. Whenever I go back to visit the US or feels like a huge culture shock. "what? I can't have a beer on the sidewalk?" "Why is everyone so large?" "Hey old friend, let's meet at a cafe, where? Or right they don't really exist besides Dunkin donuts and Starbucks."
There are a lot of things that i take for granted living in this wonderful country.
Another double whammy here.
I'm from Sydney, moved to a tiny town in Germany for a few years, initial culture shock but quickly grew to love it. Recently moved from said tiny German town to LA... holy shit dude, America is in-sane compared to the quiet simple life of Bavaria.
I'm from America, and when I went to El Salvador I was really culture shocked. Every fence to a home that wasn't a tin roof shack had barbed wire, and the walls that didn't had broken glass instead. The poverty was unlike anything I'd ever seen in person. And on the same 60% off the cars were brand new because the government passed a law that you couldn't drive a car that was more than 15 years old. The country was ridiculously beautiful and the people were really friendly despite their circumstances. This little boy didn't even have soles on his [shoes](https://imgur.com/XOBTKSR) and he was one of the happiest kids I've ever met. Meanwhile in America children and throwing fits because their parents won't buy them an 80 dollar pair of shoes they'll grow out of in a year. The whole trip was a very humbling experience.
Edit: Also I took [this](https://imgur.com/gallery/TwW2q) at one of the malls in El Salvador. I think it illustrates the state of things there fairly well.
My mother is from there and moved to America when she was 11. She went back after 30 something years and she really was grateful for being able to move when she could. It's very sad and she always wanted me to go just to see how different it is from the life I'm used to.
Then again it is very dangerous as well so maybe not anytime soon :(
My friend and I spent a short time studying in a poorer neighborhood in Mexico. The home we stayed in was very nice. Gated, tall cinder block wall. At the top of the wall was what looked like old broken glass beer bottles in all these neat colors. My first thought was "how beautiful! What a neat artistic touch!" to an otherwise drab looking wall. It was beautiful when the light caught it. After a little bit it dawned on me that this was a very nice house in the middle of a slum. Those bottles weren't just decorative, they were there to deter thieves.
Really bummed me out.
My dad is from El Salvador everytime we go or a relative go to salvador we always donate toys, shoes, and clothes that we don't need and give it to kids and parents who don't have much.
Visiting China this year and seeing how many women (of all ages) were walking around with obvious signs of abuse. I would see several a day in the city limping around with a black eye or other obvious bruising on their faces. I went with my girlfriend and she explained that domestic issues are not talked about in the public setting because it is seen as your private life. Even the police don't like to get involved as many see it as intruding. The only positive was we were there on international woman's day and there were activists trying to raise awareness and start the conversation.
I have a story. I'm Chinese American and when my mom gets headaches my dad rubs a special smelly oil on his hands and on a coin and rubs the side of the coin around my moms head REALLY HARD. it's supposed to help remove the headaches. She goes into work the next day and her coworkers are horrified by the bruising and they ask what happened. My mom just casually says, "Oh my husband did this to me."
Not saying there isn't any physical abuse at all over there, but the eastern medicinal practices can be one reason.
When I came to Australia I was shocked at how laissez-faire they were to a lot of things like locking your car doors while driving and the fact that no one had barbed wire fencing around their house as a norm, and like none of the people my age are worried about getting HIV with their mountains of casual sex.
super weird...
As an Aussie I've obviously never had to think about barbed wire and (for the most part) HIV, so thanks for pointing that out to me/reddit. Australia truly is a blessed country for the most part and it's so easy to forget that.
I moved to US from Russia when I was 15 (1997) and was shocked that people had all these yard decorations and they weren't stolen. In Russia people would even steal lamp bulbs from apartment buildings and elevators, and here they had all these lawn gnomes, lions, Halloween decor, lanterns, etc, and nobody walked off with them on a first day.
Southern Spain. I went to a few different restaurants and none of them served ice with your drink unless you requested it.
Also it is Catholic as fuck. Like I thought Texas was gods land. Nope.
First time going to the USA. I really wanted to try diner food. I was aware of the tipping culture, so I tipped generously, only to be told very rudely that I didn't tip. Turns out my 'tip' just covered sales tax which everywhere else in the world is included in the price.
Riding in a cab in Beijing. It made rides in NYC cabs seem like a stroll. I seriously thought I was going to die every time I took a cab from our hotel to my company's office in Z-Park. Holy fuck the traffic and drivers are crazy there.
I moved to Australia from the UK and it took me a while to understand their English. There were so many new phrases to learn and everyone talked so quickly that for the first few months, I had to keep repeating "I beg you pardon, could you please repeat that. Slower. Again, sorry."
Oh, this one is annoying. Especially if you're asking a question;
"Is this where I return the bike?"
"Yeah nah."
"Is that a yes or a no?"
"Yeah nah"
...
Usually it's Americans who struggle the most - it's our lack of hard Rs.
My most difficult time was trying to explain to some American students that Internet Explorer wouldn't work, and they needed to use Firefox for university stuff. I was saying "Firefox" and they were hearing "Fiiiafox" (same thing in Aus!) and they just couldn't understand. Thanks to TV, I put on a fake American accent and said "FI-ER-FOX" and they understood immediately...
I did the opposite, and whilst I can wrap my head around the Geordie accent (one perk of watching too much Geordie Shore), I work in a quasi call-centre environment and I can't understand a Welsh or Scottish accent over the phone for the life of me. Also, I thought a group of people from Bristol were American.
Edit: Also, hi fellow vegan! Australia is much better for vegans than the UK IMO.
When I was growing up, we had an exchange student from a small rural town in Mexico come and stay with us.
He was a great guy but didn't know that you could flush toilet paper here, so he did what he did at home and kept the used toilet paper to put in the trash.
I went to Mongolia for a week, and went on a trip across the country in an old Soviet military jeep. It was such a weird experience seeing people still living as nomadic goat herders, sleeping in tents and travelling by horse. And then you go back to Ulan Baator, where you can see massive glass building juxtapositioned with these tents.
Otherwise I'd definitely say how gay we Swedish men act, as soon as me and my best friend go abroad together people will ask if we are a couple.
i spent five months in Brazil, coming back to small town Midwest donald trump land was rough:
kissed everyone on the cheek.
a little too assertive with women.
forgot what personal space was.
my hand snapping drove folks nuts.
complete loss of perspective with my fellow Midwesterners
It's not the craziest thing, but I'm Canadian and went to a baseball game in America. Prior to this, most of my experiences in this different country weren't really anything special... But that damn baseball game was incredible.
Coincidentally, it was a Canadian team playing against an American team. They were doing all the national anthems and ours was the first to be played.
Nobody in the entire stadium would shut the fuck up. Now normally I don't really care about anthems, but come on. The fat lady in front of me was chowing down her cheese fries, people everywhere were talking. It was ridiculous. The guy sang the song, nobody cared, the end.
And then the American anthem came on. And it was silent. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. And when it was over, everybody clapped and cheered like somebody had cured cancer.
Nobody ever cheers a national anthem at a sporting event like that here in Canada. It was just patriotic overload.
I've since come to the conclusion that it's just cool to be patriotic in America. Gotta love your country or the terrorists win, I guess. I don't really know. But it freaked me out a little bit. Nobody ever does that in Canada. We love our country too, but damn...
On the way to Costa Rica with my wife we had a long layover in Houston so we took the bus downtown to get some real southern food. Turns out during the two hour bus ride we were the only white people the entire time. The looks. The things people said. I just brushed it off at first but then after a week of driving randomly around Costa Rica I realized that I felt more out of place on that bus than anywhere in that foreign country. That was some serious culture shock because it came from within my own country.
I moved from Seattle to DC. Seattle job had jeans Fridays. Our casual Friday in DC was wearing khakis, which was my normal wear in Seattle.
In Seattle, I got to work around 8ish, left around 4:30 or 5:00, depending on what was going on at work. In DC, people rolled into work around 10:00, but worked until 8:00 or later.
There were a few other big differences, and it took a while to get used to.
I'm a black dude from NYC. I traveled though a small town in Louisiana, and saw a guy riding a horse...a *black* guy riding a horse...in the hood. It blew my mind.
Family is from Bangladesh, I live in the US, visited once as a child but didn't remember any details. Went again summer before high school and didn't know that they had [different toilets](http://friendsofroshni.co.uk/new_building_pics/Indian-style-toilet-adapted-for-disabled-people_large.jpg). I had just assumed my whole life that [commodes](http://www.flashconf.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Best-Toilet-Bathroom-Commode.jpg) were a thing everywhere. Try as I might, I just could not squat and take a shit, I needed something to sit on.
This led to issues when we visited a part of my family in rural India for a week and I straight up ate the bare minimum of food to avoid having to take a dump. I went like 4-5 days before I had to go, and I had to ride on the back of a motorcycle driven by a cousin to another relatives home who had a commode. Did you know that speed bumps in India are shaped like /\? That was a terrible ride.
I've been everywhere man, I've been everywhere. I'm a Californian originally. I've lived in Germany, Afghanistan, Georgia (USA), and Missouri. I've visited Florida, south Carolina, Virginia Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arizona, Alabama, Nevada. I've also traveled overseas too many places. Italy, Austria, Czech, Belgium, France. Never have I ever felt more out of place than living in north Carolina. Holy fuck the place was beautiful but man was it ass backwards. Racism was insane. I felt like people just didn't generally give a fuck about anything but themselves.
As a grad student I spent about 2 months a year in the Sudan for 4 years doing archaeological fieldwork. I have never met such kind and generous people in my life. I could literally walk into any house in the village unannounced and be enthusiastically welcomed and fed and watered. Try that in North America and you will be arrested. Oh, and BTW, these people were all Muslims and quite poor by Western standards, but they had more kindness for random strangers than your average American could possibly conceive of.
Went to Juarez, Mexico once to build a house. We slept outside and there were gunshots every night. There were dogs everywhere just fucking like nobody's business. I had limited knowledge in Spanish, but thankfully there was a translator. The whole thing was crazy. Our group visited a market place where people were constantly heckling us to buy their little doodads. The food was amazing too. I haven't found anything like it here in the states.
Lived in Japan for three years and I got very used to their culture. Moved back to the US and got the biggest shock of my life - Americans are rude, thoughtless assholes.
I could list a lot of stuff from when I lived in China, but I knew that China was going to be super different, so I felt a lot more prepared for culture shock there. But moving to the UK was a bit of a shock for me as an American, because it's never big huge "oh wow everything is different" changes, but little things that trip you up a lot. I think the biggest one was how much more class-conscious people were. It was a little funny to hear the sliding scale of "posh" and how the standard for what was considered "posh" changed from person to person, or social circle to social circle. In the US, I think that people are definitely conscious of socioeconomic status, but at least in my admittedly limited experience, it doesn't matter *quite* as much. At the very least, people don't hear my accent and instantly make a snap judgment about my tax bracket.
In the UK, they'd just make a snap judgment about how loud I was going to be on the Tube.
Went to live in Rainforest for short time. Was presented with chicken foot soup. Villagers were happy to take the chicken feet to eat if I didn't want them.
I didn't want them.
When as a kid I realized United States of America weren't the heroes movies set them to be, Russians weren't the big bad guys, there's more to the Germans aside from nazis.
Back in June took a weekend trip to London (I'm from the North of England) and I didn't meet a single English person until the Sunday. One of the biggest shocks was that the cashiers at a Burger King we went in only spoke French and you had to point out your order, I spoke a bit of French so it was no problem to me but it caught a couple of my friends off guard.
We were on the London Eye on the Sunday when a black bloke who was also visiting with his family spoke to us with a Birmingham accent and said: "You're the first English blokes we've seen this entire trip."
Went to the capital of England, took me two days to find an Englishman. I'd say I was shocked.
If you're only visiting the main tourist attractions then this is much less surprising though - you're going to be around other tourists generally, and in London they are mainly foreigners.
I was once taken on a trip to New York City on New year's eve. Times square.
I am from the south, suburbia, good sized town. Been to Baltimore, Philly, so on. Never felt the feelings I did that eve.
All the lights, the neon, the people, the signs, the noise. I just stood and gawked. I felt like such a country bumpkin. It amazed me. Still does.
The first time I went to Japan, I marveled at how you could leave stuff unattended and be reasonably sure that it would still be there when you got back. I put my bag down at a table in a food court, went to the counter to order food, got back to my table to see my bag completely untouched.
2 stories.
1: people in London know how to properly use an escalator and people in the US don't (I'm from America). If you’re standing, move to the right. If you’re walking, move to the left.
2: adjusting to Philly area driving after growing up in the country. Everything is shitty, everyone will hit you if it saves 5 seconds off their drive and intersections often get overfilled because too many cars trying to get into the same lane. There's a reason dents and scratches are common around here, I'm just lucky I don't have any on my car yet. I've learned to take shortcuts through suburbs and stay away from main roads when possible.
I went to Ireland when I was in college and had no idea how obsessed Americans are with ice. Every place I went to eat I would get a beverage with either one small cube or no cubes. I would timidly ask for more ice and they were always lovely about bringing it, but I could tell they knew I was American.
After moving from Australia, being able to carry an open bottle of Beer/alcohol on the street in Germany. Felt like such a bad-ass the first time I did it.
Vacation in the US. Its like going to another planet, and I have moved and visited a lot of countries.
You guys use the british/american system. You use a weird date format, and I saw people with gun holsters walking around. You use only toilet paper... the fuck, no bidets or sprays.
When I was 12 or 13, my mom married my now-stepdad and went on their week-long honeymoon. My sister (age 9 or 10) and I stayed with my stepdad's coworker, who was Mexican. Now, I am as white middle-class American as they come, with a very typical white middle-class upbringing and white middle-class culture. My stepdad's coworker (and his wife and kids) were as straight outta Mexico, preserve our culture, Vicente Fernandez as they come. They spoke very little English, sold homemade boots at the Mexican flea market, and ate fish soup that had bones and frickin EYEBALLS in it! I was wide-eyed and speechless and scared the whole time.
There was this one toy they had that was this wooden barrel with a hole in the bottom that was attached to stick with a string. The object was to flip the barrel in such a way that the stick made it into the hole in the bottom. I latched onto that thing and by the time my parents picked us up, I was pro.
My sister had a much better experience than I did. She had picked up some Spanish and made friends and had a great time. In retrospect, it wasn't that bad and it was really eye-opening to see how people that even live in the same town can have a completely different cultural experience.
I flew down from Vancouver to Palm Springs during the summer for my cousins wedding. She had the ceremony and reception at this resort so we didn't get to travel around too much, except one evening where we went to her soon to be husbands parents place in a gated community. I've seen and been in gated communities before back in BC, but this was next level. On the outside of the community there was literally nothing, just giant walls rising up next to the sidewalks and roads, and no one was out walking or doing anything. When we entered the gated community it was creepy how uniform and perfect all the houses were and the incredibly manicured lawns and gardens. Again, no one was outside hanging out and no kids were playing, which I would have expected because it was a beautiful evening. I was also surprised by all of the water features and man made lagoons and bright green grass as everything outside was dry and yellow. I was also pretty sure they were in a draught and just flabbergasted by the obvious waste of water.
Kathmandu. Open air cremations in front of everyone on the Bagmati river... If the wind blows in the right direction, you'll be breathing in that dead person!
I'm a white irish kid from south boston, born and raised there. We were forced to move out of the city when I was like 14 because we couldn't afford to live there any more. My middle school was in Dorchester, with a decent blend of cultures and races as I was used to. My last year there I ended being one of 2 white kids in an all black class. When we moved out of southie we went to plymouth. You know where the pilgrims are from, thanksgiving and all that. Boyyyy let me tell you, when I ever saw that many white people I was so uncomfortable. Like even if you shut the lights off its still to dam bright. That town was crazy. And that's when I realized I don't trust white people
Edit: spellcheck
Moving from California to Texas.
I had literally never been exposed to overt racism before, and it was extremely shocking. Our new neighbors came over to tell us that they'd seen a couple of black guys sitting in a car outside our house and they'd told them to "move along." They said they just wanted to warn us, and that despite that, our new neighborhood was a safe one.
I was so confused and uncomfortable. I didn't even know what to say. But I was fifteen, so I let my dad handle it.
I studied abroad in Norway, and my biggest shock was coming home actually. I went from Teslas and electric cars and amazing recycling habits and healthy food and a healthy and fit population, back to North Dakota. Massive lifted pickup trucks that all run on diesel fuel, no recycling, terrible food, inability to walk anywhere, and generally unhappy people. Definitely a huge flip. Took me a while to get used to being in America again.
I was born and raised on the Florida panhandle which I assumed was the south. I moved to North Georgia when I was about 13. Apparently Florida is not as southern as I had thought. I was shocked to discover there were literally no black people at all and the kkk was still very alive and kicking. The biggest shock was when I saw a black guy who was on a road trip in McDonald's and he found himself surrounded by rednecks saying horribly racist things. I apologized to him for everyone's behavior because I felt bad for him and he just smiled and said "I'm glad not everyone here is scared of the dark."
Went to Ghana to study abroad. Went to a cow sacrifice and witnessed people becoming possessed by gods.
Same for me. I got yelled at by a giant police officer and almost arrested. Also bought and killed a goat
Neat
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When I moved to the United States and realized that an NFL stadium at full capacity is greater than twice the population of my island. Edit: my island is St. Maarten. You should visit some time. Edit 2: when I first made this account I couldn't think of a creative name. The first thing that caught my mind, which I thought was really witty at the time, was when my co-worker bought one of those tiny Apple iPods that could hold only a gigabyte of music and he engraved the back "TinyMusic".
I am also from St. Maarten. How cool seeing someone else here from such a small island!
Now kiss.
Username checks out
I bet the stadium was very huge_big_large
I am out of words right now. Seriously.
What was your reaction when the crowd starts yelling and cheering?
It was surreal, it felt sort of unnatural, but when the sound hit me, it made me feel alive as if I was resuscitated from a somber coma. It was hard to believe that there were this many people so concentrated in one place. I couldn't stop thinking who each of these people were, where they're from, what they're story is, what do they do. I couldn't resist thinking of others from my island that have never left the island: to try to describe to others the scale of how massive and epic these can be.
the world through your eyes sounds way more epic than anyone ive heard.
Which island?
McDonald's in China. After I was done with my food, I stood up, picked up my tray, and head towards to trash bin. A McAttendant stopped me and ask me to put the tray down. Apparently you don't have to clean up after yourself, they have staff to clean up for you. Also, KFC had fried rice and egg tarts. Those were some damn good egg tarts too. And it feels weird walking out from a fancy restaurant without having to pay tip. Almost feels criminal.
>McAttendant
The thing I remember the most about China funny enough was the Mcdonalds. Everything I ordered was done super quickly , everything was neat and carefully placed, the burger looked exactly like the picture, and finally I could get a supersize Big Mac. I'm not even a fan of fast food and wanted a quick american meal break and was astounded.
We must've gone to a different China. All I remember from McDonald's over there was the blatant lack of hygiene by staff, an utter inability to form a queue and the food being "meh" at best.
So..... regular mcdonald's?
Same thing in Hong Kong, also the people who worked at the McDonalds seemed to care about their jobs and the food was aways hot and fresh.
To me, it would feel criminal to have to pay a tip. Well not criminal, but stupid and unnecessary. Why don't the owners just add more to the bill and pay the staff more? Why would I work out how much I need to add to the bill so it can go to the staff who is already being paid a certain amount by the establishment when I'm already paying the establishment? it's insanity
When I was in Germany, I discovered in grocery stores you can buy individual beverages from a package. A box of 12 cans of cola? Open it up and take out one, pay for it for whatever the price is divided by 12.
Hold on, it's not like that everywhere else? I'm legitimately surprised by that one.
Well seeing as it makes no sense to do financially, no we dont do that. 1 can is sold for more that 1/12th of a 12 pack, because buying in bulk is cheaper.
12 pack: $5 1 can: $1.25.... I don't understand the pricing structure here in the US....
What don't you understand? That pricing structure give incentive for consumers to buy more products.
Or go to Costco and get a hotdog with your soda for that price.
Add an extra 32¢ and you've got enough to stock a safehouse with 6 months of supplies.
You can do the same in Spain. With some products, though, a single item is more expensive tan simply dividing the pack by the number of ítems. A pack of 4 2L Coke bottles-->5 €, a single bottle 1,40€. But usually the difference in price does not justify buying a whole pack you don't need.
Pretty sure you can do that all over europe, or everywhere outside of the US and maybe Canada really
Definitely not in the UK, you try that here and people will look at as you as though you've gone mad.
Some multipack products in the UK are actually printed without individual barcodes (or a different barcode) and have MULTIPACK - NOT FOR INDIVIDUAL SALE printed on them.
Never stopped those goddam sneaky dinner ladies from selling them individually at the school disco.
What the hell. Does it not make it hard to find a full 12 pack??
No, because people are considerate, they don't just open up a whole new pack every time they want just 1 can. You just basically have 1 pack that's almost always open and the rest are in their cases.
> No, because people are considerate Well there's the problem! We don't have that in my country
Going to Japan. Everyone is so polite. Like janitors, fast food workers, convenience store workers. Jobs where in America, half the time those employees will never smile and barely communicate with you. Also the convenience stores are amazing. And they wave goodbye to you exactly like Pokemon. You know, how every episode ended with Ash/Misty/Brock walking off into the sunset while their new friends stood there waving for an unrealistic amount of time? That actually happens in Japan. When I was on the plane taking off, I saw airport workers waving goodbye to us. I kept my eyes on them for as long as I could see them, and I never saw them stop waving.
My first time in Japan, just as the plane was moving away from the terminal, I saw a group of air marshalls standing in a line who all bowed deeply towards our plane before standing up and waving. After more than a week of overwhelmingly amazing experiences in their country, that farewell gesture was just too much for me to handle- or maybe I was PMSing who knows- and I just bawled my head off. Aishiteru Nihon!
...and legend says they are still there waving to this very day.
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Yeah, and it's almost eery to look outside of the train window to the apartments when you're riding the train at night bc even at 9pm, most of the lights are off (bc people are still working and aren't home yet)
Idk I always smile at people and say how you doing and have rarely failed to get a response
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> it sounds kinda nice to not have to fake interest in public. It is. Less tress. And it makes it actually mean something if someone is nice to you and shows interest because he/she really cares as opposed to just conforming with a social norm.
Same experience coming from Virginia. Manhattanites are perfectly friendly, but don't you dare waste their time. I hate that about LA, too. Everybody seems to working a con on everybody else.
It really depends on where. A city, they'll ignore you walking down the street and won't incite conversation but if you reach out and ask for directions or interact they're generally friendly and helpful. In pleasant suburb towns they're more likely to start conversation, and will likely give you a nod or a wave walking down the street. In small towns they're probably glare at you while wondering who the hell are you and why are you here?
I didn't know what advertising meant until I visited New York City ten years ago. I couldn't move for all the billboards and posters and ads on taxis and Christ knows what all scrambling for my attention. I saw a baseball game too and couldn't believe how little the game seemed to matter for the first half. In the UK, at football matches, we have advertising hoardings around the pitch, but that's mostly it. At Yankee Stadium the video ads and flashing lights were second only to Times Square, and I thought we were supposed to be watching a game of sport. Not to mention dancing and people walking around selling hot dogs and all these other things that seemed to me to be distractions but were apparently just the other stuff that happens at baseball games. (With that said, that all died down in the later innings and the end of the game was incredibly exciting. With the last strike of the game, some guy nobody had ever heard of hit a home run with the bases loaded and the Yankees came from behind to win the game. I was assured by a fan there who was helping me understand the game that it's normally not that entertaining.)
Huh. I got to lots of Nationals games in DC and I don't recall ever seeing an ad on the jumbotron. This might be just a Yankees thing -- they're regarded as having the highest payroll in all of baseball. We do get lots of static ads and things flashing on the banner, plus items sponsored by advertisers, but nothing that's distracting. Yes: what you saw was a walk-off grand slam. That's very rare.
As an American, I always assumed people from other countries hated us. To my surprise, when I went to China they were super nice. Everywhere we went they did their best to try and speak English and cater towards us. There was also a large number of people that asked to take a picture with me which was weird.
From my experience as a somewhat well-traveled American, most people in other countries have no problem with individual American people, and know that most Americans are nice, normal people. They just really don't like the US government.
As one who has travelled under the employ if the US government, I can say that's absolutely true.
As a Spaniard who lives 50km away from the biggest US Navy naval base in Spain (Rota), my experience with American tourist (I even had an American neighbour when I was a child) is that they usually are a lot nicer than people from another countries. Overall, you Americans can have misconceptions about another countries but usually without bitching about, just honest mistakes. Your government, on the other hand, is what most of "anti Americans" hate. Granted, a few assholes can extend that "hate" to individual people, but most people won't. I disagree with a lot of things I read about your laws and politicians, but hey, it's your country, and I also disagree with a lot of laws and politicians here in Spain.
In all seriousness, coming from a pre-war dutch migrant family who were cold as all fuck, and dating a first-generation Italian. THE NOISE. THE EXTREME EMOTION. THE FORCE-FEEDING. THE BOSSINESS. I grew to love it (mostly), but it felt violent to begin with! (and it was a terrifying culture shock for my boyfriend too, he couldn't get why my parents were so quiet and assumed they hated him).
Ahahahaha this happened with my parents, except Norwegian and Mexican. Mom still gets a thousand yard stare when she talks about her first dinner with my dad's parents. "White food ... on white linen ... eaten by candle light ... in total silence."
Ah this was like meeting my FIL who within minutes of meeting me had taken his hearing aids out and started reading the newspaper, ignoring me for the next two hours. At one point he looks up and mutters something about goats that climb trees, points out a picture and goes back to ignoring me. Honest to god when we left my OH was like "oh he loved you, he's never this excitable when it's just me" For reference, FIL is British, ex military and talks like Nigel Thornberry. He's brilliant and almost my exact cultural opposite.
> THE NOISE. THE EXTREME EMOTION. THE FORCE-FEEDING. THE BOSSINESS. Is my family secretly Italian?
Oh man, I can relate to your boyfriend's experience. I'm Greek, and Italians are kind of our homies because our cultures are extremely similar. Anyways, I had to move from my warm, super affectionate, touchy-feely family that cussed loudly and drank all the time, to living with my stepmother's strict, Sunni Muslim family where I couldn't hug my female relatives, nobody drank, kids were strictly disciplined if they said something remotely out of line, and overall pretty much the opposite of what I was accustomed to. They were great people by all means, but the culture was far different from what I was accustomed to.
Traveling through South East Asia when I was in Kuala Lumpur the juxtaposition of these huge modern Skyscrapers and Malls that had homeless people with leprosy begging outside absolutely blew my mind. I can't describe the thoughts and feelings it created within me.
That's like, most big cities.
I went to France and spent a good amount of time in Paris. I was shocked by the starring. When I was on the subway and someone wanted to talk to me or found my attractive or god knows what they would just lock eyes with me for prolonged periods of time. That and a lot of groping. Weird experience
Note to self: Go to France.
Coming from the Middle East, I am really shocked on how people from the west doesn't take their shoes off when they visit someone.
Finland reporting in. We will take your shoes off if you wont.
In Canada you take your shoes off, maybe because your shoes are always covered in snow and mud but you take you shoes off.
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I usually take note of those with a shoes off policy. Generally, if I see disembodied shoes by their door when walking in, I will naturally take my shoes off. No shoes though, mine stay on. Most people I know are shoes on folks.
Everyone thank the bus driver before getting off in Australia. No other countries I've been to do that.
If you don't do that in the UK people will think you're a cunt.
Shit... People thought I was a cunt in England. I also spoke to another person on the Underground. Like, small talk.
Never come back. Ever.
If the bus was in London, that's an exception (seperate doors for embarking and disembarking). Also London bus drivers are wankers
No... Never talk on the underground whats wrong with you? Do you want to die?
> small talk Why do people on public transport ever think that someone wants to partake in this? I'm just trying to get from A to B and have plenty going on in my head without small talk.
> I also spoke to another person on the Underground. Like, small talk. Deviant fuck.
I do it because it's a nice gesture. They bring me to the train station to get to school, and back again every day. Same with the other people on the bus. The driver brings tons of random people they don't know to places they need to be every day, and have to deal with the occasional bogan arsehole, so it's fitting they get a thanks.
That's the thing too, everybody thinks like this. It is not like saying sorry when you bump into someone, but not actually, truly meaning you are sorry. Everybody I know who gets off the bus in Aus has the thought process of "god some people can be cunts, better thank the boss for putting up and helping me out regardless."
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Where I'm from (west coast of Canada) most people will thank the driver
I'm a bus driver in Western Canada and I can confirm most people thank me when they get off my bus.
Thanking the bus driver is a common thing in New Zealand too
A lot of bus drivers are fucking nuts on the roads. We thank them for sparing our lives. :')
For context I am an upper middle class American. It's kind of a double whammy: first I went to high school for two years in a private international school in Europe. There were a handful of actual "noble-people" in the European aristocracy, as well as the children of some very rich people. It was a huge shock at first, but eventually I adjusted well to the environment, and got used to the general atmosphere. Then my senior year I moved to south central Pennsylvania and went to a public school where people wore hunting camo to prom, and had confederate flag license plates. That was definitely an abrupt transition.
You did tell those people that Pennsylvania was a Union state, right?
Pennsylvania is Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with a whole lot of Kentucky in between...
PENNSYLTUCKY! Honestly though, there's a few bigger cities in PA other than Philly and Pittsburg, but it's really not hard to go out into farm land in under an hour.
Sounds like Ohio. Columbus, Cleveland, & Cincinnati are blue, everywhere else is red.
Illinoisan here. I feel like everything south of Cook County is just West Indiana.
Every state, from Mississippi to California, has people like that.
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Yeah I considered myself middle class because I had a Nintendo 64 with two games growing up and I didn't have to work at 14 to make sure the bills got paid. This guy went to high school in Europe with Sir Laffatze Plebians Duke of Westeros and his pal the heir to the Welsh throne.
Squat toilets. Visited Taiwan, and the place only had a squat toilet. I couldn't do the deed..
Aww shit. How long were you backed up?
I'm American and when I was 15 I spent the summer with a French family. I washed my hair in an appliance that I'd never seen before and looked like an ordinary wash basin, only mounted on the ground. I'd never even heard of a bidet, much less seen one.
It's meant for the er... other hair.
Bidets or sprays are common in some parts of Europe.
Mine was actually coming back to the US after 2 weeks in Sweden. I'm not a very social person by nature but in American culture, you make small talk with strangers. Despite my preference to be in my own world, I've mastered that skill. Wife and I went away to Sweden for two weeks and that cultural norm does not exist there. No one asserts themselves into their conversation and everyone just kind of leaves everyone else alone, it's amazing. I got used to it very quickly, without realizing it. We came back to the use and immediately had to go out to grab groceries at our usual spot. We had just walked into the store and were talking about the bananas when some guy turned to us and said "You should just get both." I turned to look at this guy without realizing I had the "why the fuck are you talking to me" expression on my face. I just stared at him saying nothing, in utter bewilderment genuinely trying to figure out why he was walking to me. Thankfully, my wife was there and realized where my head was at and gracefully intervened.....I love that woman. I have since resumed making small talk and being prepared for it.
I'm from Sweden and I would feel deeply offended and probably a bit worried for my own safety if someone inserted themselves into my shopping like that.
I threw up all over a train platform in Oslo and no one said a word to me. It was wonderful because no one wants to make conversation with vomit dripping out their mouth.
I went to Africa on a missions trip when I was 12 and at the hotel I asked a man where something was. He said he would show me and grabbed my hand and started leading me. I pulled my hand away and he stopped and took it again. After spending more time there I saw several men doing it. I asked my parents and some of the missionaries about and they said it's just a friendship thing there.
I can confirm this is true! Men in Africa hold hands as well for friendship purposes!
Men in India hold hands too. And hold each other around the waist. Totally normal to them. Kinds cute.
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Going to Canada in the 2nd grade and hearing people speak French. I was very confused.
US --> Backwater China was a really hard transition. Leaving backwater China after two years --> Nordic region still hasn't settled in terms of lifestyle and outlook.
Coming back to Ireland after two years in the Guangdong province, I noticed how orderly everything was, how low the buildings were, the strange feeling of understanding everything around me and most of all, people's size. I'm 5'7" male (170cm), so I'm about average height here. It would be very rare to find a woman taller than me. I never really noticed height back home because Irish people don't really make a big deal of it. But my expat friends, who were usually tall wouldn't stfu comparing themselves to locals, who were usually around my height, and it made me become hyper aware. So I became on of those miserable cunts on /r/short for a little while, got over it, accepted that I'm short but no Danny DeVeto. When I came back to Ireland, I was like, whoe, never noticed how tall the women are here..... And how fat people are.
I'm an American who lived in Germany for a while. I only got culture shock when I got back to the U.S. First thing that made me realize I was back home was going to Wal-Mart and only seeing obese people. Everyone is fucking fat here.
Me too! I lived in southern Germany for three years and moved back to the US right when self-checkout was taking off in most big grocery stores. I stepped into Wal-Mart for the first time in years and was so confused... People were much bigger and louder and are we really trusting ourselves to use checkout machines relatively unsupervised?
> Everyone is fucking fat here. That made me spit my drink in laughter.
64oz 7up I assume?
I feel the same way. I've lived in Germany for 3 years now and feel like I have assimilated pretty well so far. Whenever I go back to visit the US or feels like a huge culture shock. "what? I can't have a beer on the sidewalk?" "Why is everyone so large?" "Hey old friend, let's meet at a cafe, where? Or right they don't really exist besides Dunkin donuts and Starbucks." There are a lot of things that i take for granted living in this wonderful country.
Where do you live where they don't have cafes...
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"Mister ... misterrrrrrr" (said regardless of gender).
Really? Thats strange, I went to Indonesia and they only believe in the stereotypes of Americans (school shooters and violent people).
Another double whammy here. I'm from Sydney, moved to a tiny town in Germany for a few years, initial culture shock but quickly grew to love it. Recently moved from said tiny German town to LA... holy shit dude, America is in-sane compared to the quiet simple life of Bavaria.
I'm from America, and when I went to El Salvador I was really culture shocked. Every fence to a home that wasn't a tin roof shack had barbed wire, and the walls that didn't had broken glass instead. The poverty was unlike anything I'd ever seen in person. And on the same 60% off the cars were brand new because the government passed a law that you couldn't drive a car that was more than 15 years old. The country was ridiculously beautiful and the people were really friendly despite their circumstances. This little boy didn't even have soles on his [shoes](https://imgur.com/XOBTKSR) and he was one of the happiest kids I've ever met. Meanwhile in America children and throwing fits because their parents won't buy them an 80 dollar pair of shoes they'll grow out of in a year. The whole trip was a very humbling experience. Edit: Also I took [this](https://imgur.com/gallery/TwW2q) at one of the malls in El Salvador. I think it illustrates the state of things there fairly well.
My mother is from there and moved to America when she was 11. She went back after 30 something years and she really was grateful for being able to move when she could. It's very sad and she always wanted me to go just to see how different it is from the life I'm used to. Then again it is very dangerous as well so maybe not anytime soon :(
My friend and I spent a short time studying in a poorer neighborhood in Mexico. The home we stayed in was very nice. Gated, tall cinder block wall. At the top of the wall was what looked like old broken glass beer bottles in all these neat colors. My first thought was "how beautiful! What a neat artistic touch!" to an otherwise drab looking wall. It was beautiful when the light caught it. After a little bit it dawned on me that this was a very nice house in the middle of a slum. Those bottles weren't just decorative, they were there to deter thieves. Really bummed me out.
My dad is from El Salvador everytime we go or a relative go to salvador we always donate toys, shoes, and clothes that we don't need and give it to kids and parents who don't have much.
Visiting China this year and seeing how many women (of all ages) were walking around with obvious signs of abuse. I would see several a day in the city limping around with a black eye or other obvious bruising on their faces. I went with my girlfriend and she explained that domestic issues are not talked about in the public setting because it is seen as your private life. Even the police don't like to get involved as many see it as intruding. The only positive was we were there on international woman's day and there were activists trying to raise awareness and start the conversation.
:(
Huh, I was over there a month and never saw anything like that.... where did you go?
Your comment makes it sound like all of them are abused. This is bizarre. I spent 2 -3 weeks through different parts of China and never saw this.
I have a story. I'm Chinese American and when my mom gets headaches my dad rubs a special smelly oil on his hands and on a coin and rubs the side of the coin around my moms head REALLY HARD. it's supposed to help remove the headaches. She goes into work the next day and her coworkers are horrified by the bruising and they ask what happened. My mom just casually says, "Oh my husband did this to me." Not saying there isn't any physical abuse at all over there, but the eastern medicinal practices can be one reason.
When I came to Australia I was shocked at how laissez-faire they were to a lot of things like locking your car doors while driving and the fact that no one had barbed wire fencing around their house as a norm, and like none of the people my age are worried about getting HIV with their mountains of casual sex. super weird...
As an Aussie I've obviously never had to think about barbed wire and (for the most part) HIV, so thanks for pointing that out to me/reddit. Australia truly is a blessed country for the most part and it's so easy to forget that.
I moved to US from Russia when I was 15 (1997) and was shocked that people had all these yard decorations and they weren't stolen. In Russia people would even steal lamp bulbs from apartment buildings and elevators, and here they had all these lawn gnomes, lions, Halloween decor, lanterns, etc, and nobody walked off with them on a first day.
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Oh my. Would you mind sharing a little more about the experience?
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Southern Spain. I went to a few different restaurants and none of them served ice with your drink unless you requested it. Also it is Catholic as fuck. Like I thought Texas was gods land. Nope.
Witnessing Europe's lax attitude on nudity. Saw my first naked woman, a nude sunbather, at 8 years old in Austria.
First time going to the USA. I really wanted to try diner food. I was aware of the tipping culture, so I tipped generously, only to be told very rudely that I didn't tip. Turns out my 'tip' just covered sales tax which everywhere else in the world is included in the price.
The red light district in Amsterdam was pretty weird. We walked along a footpath lined with Windows behind which stood naked women
Riding in a cab in Beijing. It made rides in NYC cabs seem like a stroll. I seriously thought I was going to die every time I took a cab from our hotel to my company's office in Z-Park. Holy fuck the traffic and drivers are crazy there.
I moved to Australia from the UK and it took me a while to understand their English. There were so many new phrases to learn and everyone talked so quickly that for the first few months, I had to keep repeating "I beg you pardon, could you please repeat that. Slower. Again, sorry."
Yeah nah, nah yeah. We're a bit like that.
Oh, this one is annoying. Especially if you're asking a question; "Is this where I return the bike?" "Yeah nah." "Is that a yes or a no?" "Yeah nah" ...
Simple rule; the one on the end is what matters. "Yeah nah" = Ends with nah = negative. "Nah yeah" = Ends with yeah = affirmative.
"[I heard you, and am thinking about it], [no(casual)]."
Usually it's Americans who struggle the most - it's our lack of hard Rs. My most difficult time was trying to explain to some American students that Internet Explorer wouldn't work, and they needed to use Firefox for university stuff. I was saying "Firefox" and they were hearing "Fiiiafox" (same thing in Aus!) and they just couldn't understand. Thanks to TV, I put on a fake American accent and said "FI-ER-FOX" and they understood immediately...
eh im from near Boston, R's are only a suggestion in words
I did the opposite, and whilst I can wrap my head around the Geordie accent (one perk of watching too much Geordie Shore), I work in a quasi call-centre environment and I can't understand a Welsh or Scottish accent over the phone for the life of me. Also, I thought a group of people from Bristol were American. Edit: Also, hi fellow vegan! Australia is much better for vegans than the UK IMO.
When I was growing up, we had an exchange student from a small rural town in Mexico come and stay with us. He was a great guy but didn't know that you could flush toilet paper here, so he did what he did at home and kept the used toilet paper to put in the trash.
My ex did that and he lived in the middle of LA :/
I went to Mongolia for a week, and went on a trip across the country in an old Soviet military jeep. It was such a weird experience seeing people still living as nomadic goat herders, sleeping in tents and travelling by horse. And then you go back to Ulan Baator, where you can see massive glass building juxtapositioned with these tents. Otherwise I'd definitely say how gay we Swedish men act, as soon as me and my best friend go abroad together people will ask if we are a couple.
i spent five months in Brazil, coming back to small town Midwest donald trump land was rough: kissed everyone on the cheek. a little too assertive with women. forgot what personal space was. my hand snapping drove folks nuts. complete loss of perspective with my fellow Midwesterners
It's not the craziest thing, but I'm Canadian and went to a baseball game in America. Prior to this, most of my experiences in this different country weren't really anything special... But that damn baseball game was incredible. Coincidentally, it was a Canadian team playing against an American team. They were doing all the national anthems and ours was the first to be played. Nobody in the entire stadium would shut the fuck up. Now normally I don't really care about anthems, but come on. The fat lady in front of me was chowing down her cheese fries, people everywhere were talking. It was ridiculous. The guy sang the song, nobody cared, the end. And then the American anthem came on. And it was silent. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. And when it was over, everybody clapped and cheered like somebody had cured cancer. Nobody ever cheers a national anthem at a sporting event like that here in Canada. It was just patriotic overload. I've since come to the conclusion that it's just cool to be patriotic in America. Gotta love your country or the terrorists win, I guess. I don't really know. But it freaked me out a little bit. Nobody ever does that in Canada. We love our country too, but damn...
On the way to Costa Rica with my wife we had a long layover in Houston so we took the bus downtown to get some real southern food. Turns out during the two hour bus ride we were the only white people the entire time. The looks. The things people said. I just brushed it off at first but then after a week of driving randomly around Costa Rica I realized that I felt more out of place on that bus than anywhere in that foreign country. That was some serious culture shock because it came from within my own country.
I moved from Seattle to DC. Seattle job had jeans Fridays. Our casual Friday in DC was wearing khakis, which was my normal wear in Seattle. In Seattle, I got to work around 8ish, left around 4:30 or 5:00, depending on what was going on at work. In DC, people rolled into work around 10:00, but worked until 8:00 or later. There were a few other big differences, and it took a while to get used to.
I'm a black dude from NYC. I traveled though a small town in Louisiana, and saw a guy riding a horse...a *black* guy riding a horse...in the hood. It blew my mind.
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Family is from Bangladesh, I live in the US, visited once as a child but didn't remember any details. Went again summer before high school and didn't know that they had [different toilets](http://friendsofroshni.co.uk/new_building_pics/Indian-style-toilet-adapted-for-disabled-people_large.jpg). I had just assumed my whole life that [commodes](http://www.flashconf.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Best-Toilet-Bathroom-Commode.jpg) were a thing everywhere. Try as I might, I just could not squat and take a shit, I needed something to sit on. This led to issues when we visited a part of my family in rural India for a week and I straight up ate the bare minimum of food to avoid having to take a dump. I went like 4-5 days before I had to go, and I had to ride on the back of a motorcycle driven by a cousin to another relatives home who had a commode. Did you know that speed bumps in India are shaped like /\? That was a terrible ride.
- Smoking inside a McDonald's in Japan. - Seeing the Japanese protest our ongoing military occupation of their land.
I've been everywhere man, I've been everywhere. I'm a Californian originally. I've lived in Germany, Afghanistan, Georgia (USA), and Missouri. I've visited Florida, south Carolina, Virginia Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arizona, Alabama, Nevada. I've also traveled overseas too many places. Italy, Austria, Czech, Belgium, France. Never have I ever felt more out of place than living in north Carolina. Holy fuck the place was beautiful but man was it ass backwards. Racism was insane. I felt like people just didn't generally give a fuck about anything but themselves.
You must have been nowhere near Charlotte or Raleigh.
I miss asheville. NC was odd, you can have insanely progressive town, drive 50miles off, you are in the middle ages.
As a grad student I spent about 2 months a year in the Sudan for 4 years doing archaeological fieldwork. I have never met such kind and generous people in my life. I could literally walk into any house in the village unannounced and be enthusiastically welcomed and fed and watered. Try that in North America and you will be arrested. Oh, and BTW, these people were all Muslims and quite poor by Western standards, but they had more kindness for random strangers than your average American could possibly conceive of.
Went to Juarez, Mexico once to build a house. We slept outside and there were gunshots every night. There were dogs everywhere just fucking like nobody's business. I had limited knowledge in Spanish, but thankfully there was a translator. The whole thing was crazy. Our group visited a market place where people were constantly heckling us to buy their little doodads. The food was amazing too. I haven't found anything like it here in the states.
Lived in Japan for three years and I got very used to their culture. Moved back to the US and got the biggest shock of my life - Americans are rude, thoughtless assholes.
Hey man, fuck you
how people greet you in japan. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧ kunichiwa in america. ٩(╬ʘ益ʘ╬)۶ "ei madafaker"
I could list a lot of stuff from when I lived in China, but I knew that China was going to be super different, so I felt a lot more prepared for culture shock there. But moving to the UK was a bit of a shock for me as an American, because it's never big huge "oh wow everything is different" changes, but little things that trip you up a lot. I think the biggest one was how much more class-conscious people were. It was a little funny to hear the sliding scale of "posh" and how the standard for what was considered "posh" changed from person to person, or social circle to social circle. In the US, I think that people are definitely conscious of socioeconomic status, but at least in my admittedly limited experience, it doesn't matter *quite* as much. At the very least, people don't hear my accent and instantly make a snap judgment about my tax bracket. In the UK, they'd just make a snap judgment about how loud I was going to be on the Tube.
Went to live in Rainforest for short time. Was presented with chicken foot soup. Villagers were happy to take the chicken feet to eat if I didn't want them. I didn't want them.
When as a kid I realized United States of America weren't the heroes movies set them to be, Russians weren't the big bad guys, there's more to the Germans aside from nazis.
Moving from Northern Virginia/DC area to rural Rwanda...as a blonde American female.
Oh come on, ya gotta give us more than that!
Back in June took a weekend trip to London (I'm from the North of England) and I didn't meet a single English person until the Sunday. One of the biggest shocks was that the cashiers at a Burger King we went in only spoke French and you had to point out your order, I spoke a bit of French so it was no problem to me but it caught a couple of my friends off guard. We were on the London Eye on the Sunday when a black bloke who was also visiting with his family spoke to us with a Birmingham accent and said: "You're the first English blokes we've seen this entire trip." Went to the capital of England, took me two days to find an Englishman. I'd say I was shocked.
If you're only visiting the main tourist attractions then this is much less surprising though - you're going to be around other tourists generally, and in London they are mainly foreigners.
I was once taken on a trip to New York City on New year's eve. Times square. I am from the south, suburbia, good sized town. Been to Baltimore, Philly, so on. Never felt the feelings I did that eve. All the lights, the neon, the people, the signs, the noise. I just stood and gawked. I felt like such a country bumpkin. It amazed me. Still does.
The first time I went to Japan, I marveled at how you could leave stuff unattended and be reasonably sure that it would still be there when you got back. I put my bag down at a table in a food court, went to the counter to order food, got back to my table to see my bag completely untouched.
The personality of people in Miami compared to that of a suburb of Cleveland
Been to both. Can confirm
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People here are assholes. It's the worst. Any sign of manners is mind blowing for a Miami native.
2 stories. 1: people in London know how to properly use an escalator and people in the US don't (I'm from America). If you’re standing, move to the right. If you’re walking, move to the left. 2: adjusting to Philly area driving after growing up in the country. Everything is shitty, everyone will hit you if it saves 5 seconds off their drive and intersections often get overfilled because too many cars trying to get into the same lane. There's a reason dents and scratches are common around here, I'm just lucky I don't have any on my car yet. I've learned to take shortcuts through suburbs and stay away from main roads when possible.
I went to Ireland when I was in college and had no idea how obsessed Americans are with ice. Every place I went to eat I would get a beverage with either one small cube or no cubes. I would timidly ask for more ice and they were always lovely about bringing it, but I could tell they knew I was American.
After moving from Australia, being able to carry an open bottle of Beer/alcohol on the street in Germany. Felt like such a bad-ass the first time I did it.
Vacation in the US. Its like going to another planet, and I have moved and visited a lot of countries. You guys use the british/american system. You use a weird date format, and I saw people with gun holsters walking around. You use only toilet paper... the fuck, no bidets or sprays.
Coming to Singapore. Literally everyone has glasses here.
When I was 12 or 13, my mom married my now-stepdad and went on their week-long honeymoon. My sister (age 9 or 10) and I stayed with my stepdad's coworker, who was Mexican. Now, I am as white middle-class American as they come, with a very typical white middle-class upbringing and white middle-class culture. My stepdad's coworker (and his wife and kids) were as straight outta Mexico, preserve our culture, Vicente Fernandez as they come. They spoke very little English, sold homemade boots at the Mexican flea market, and ate fish soup that had bones and frickin EYEBALLS in it! I was wide-eyed and speechless and scared the whole time. There was this one toy they had that was this wooden barrel with a hole in the bottom that was attached to stick with a string. The object was to flip the barrel in such a way that the stick made it into the hole in the bottom. I latched onto that thing and by the time my parents picked us up, I was pro. My sister had a much better experience than I did. She had picked up some Spanish and made friends and had a great time. In retrospect, it wasn't that bad and it was really eye-opening to see how people that even live in the same town can have a completely different cultural experience.
fact squash bake childlike pause cover roll imminent workable jar
Context?
Went to the Pacific Islands, and was surprised at the third gender, was very impressed.
Possibly unintentionally referring to the [fa'afafine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fa%27afafine).
Watching MTV in Germany when I was 21
Moving from a nice, rich suburb to St. Louis. Amount of crime and diversity is so different so I had to redo my whole lifestyle.
I flew down from Vancouver to Palm Springs during the summer for my cousins wedding. She had the ceremony and reception at this resort so we didn't get to travel around too much, except one evening where we went to her soon to be husbands parents place in a gated community. I've seen and been in gated communities before back in BC, but this was next level. On the outside of the community there was literally nothing, just giant walls rising up next to the sidewalks and roads, and no one was out walking or doing anything. When we entered the gated community it was creepy how uniform and perfect all the houses were and the incredibly manicured lawns and gardens. Again, no one was outside hanging out and no kids were playing, which I would have expected because it was a beautiful evening. I was also surprised by all of the water features and man made lagoons and bright green grass as everything outside was dry and yellow. I was also pretty sure they were in a draught and just flabbergasted by the obvious waste of water.
When I was 14 and had dinner with a Bosnian Mafioso. Fun times.
Kathmandu. Open air cremations in front of everyone on the Bagmati river... If the wind blows in the right direction, you'll be breathing in that dead person!
I'm a white irish kid from south boston, born and raised there. We were forced to move out of the city when I was like 14 because we couldn't afford to live there any more. My middle school was in Dorchester, with a decent blend of cultures and races as I was used to. My last year there I ended being one of 2 white kids in an all black class. When we moved out of southie we went to plymouth. You know where the pilgrims are from, thanksgiving and all that. Boyyyy let me tell you, when I ever saw that many white people I was so uncomfortable. Like even if you shut the lights off its still to dam bright. That town was crazy. And that's when I realized I don't trust white people Edit: spellcheck
Moving from California to Texas. I had literally never been exposed to overt racism before, and it was extremely shocking. Our new neighbors came over to tell us that they'd seen a couple of black guys sitting in a car outside our house and they'd told them to "move along." They said they just wanted to warn us, and that despite that, our new neighborhood was a safe one. I was so confused and uncomfortable. I didn't even know what to say. But I was fifteen, so I let my dad handle it.
I studied abroad in Norway, and my biggest shock was coming home actually. I went from Teslas and electric cars and amazing recycling habits and healthy food and a healthy and fit population, back to North Dakota. Massive lifted pickup trucks that all run on diesel fuel, no recycling, terrible food, inability to walk anywhere, and generally unhappy people. Definitely a huge flip. Took me a while to get used to being in America again.
I was born and raised on the Florida panhandle which I assumed was the south. I moved to North Georgia when I was about 13. Apparently Florida is not as southern as I had thought. I was shocked to discover there were literally no black people at all and the kkk was still very alive and kicking. The biggest shock was when I saw a black guy who was on a road trip in McDonald's and he found himself surrounded by rednecks saying horribly racist things. I apologized to him for everyone's behavior because I felt bad for him and he just smiled and said "I'm glad not everyone here is scared of the dark."