culture shock

[Her]

those of you that have visited different countries, what were some of the things that heavily contrasted to acceptable practice back home? i would love to hear a story about someone eating balut, for example

ps: americans, the surprise of people eating like they're not about to off themselves the next day does not count here

 

[Yue Han]

Nothing behavioural has really been too shocking to be honest wherever I've been. I've heard people in X part of the world do X, I see people doing X, I accept it. I heard people piss and spit in the streets in China before I came here, they do, I see it, it's always been whatever to me. I've always been pretty unquestioning/unmoved about behavioural differences.

What I notice is more stuff like I can go to a bank here and get everything sorted on that day. From the amount of paperwork I see happening in the background it looks like they cut down an entire tree just for me, but everything can get done then and there...as opposed to the UK when, no matter what it is, you need to wait a stupid amount of working days for any little thing concerning a bank. Same with hospitals. I can go in for tests without an appointment, say what I want, get the tests done then and there, and have the results within the hour. The fact that it's possible not to have to wait working days for these kinds of things really surprised me.

Also transport costs anywhere in the world is always so much cheaper than the UK so I'm never left thinking 'this is going to cost me an arm and a leg just to get there'.

 

[Grey Wind]

The biggest thing that freaked me out about America was all the police/security carrying massive guns. It was so disconcerting stepping off the plane and seeing all these security guards carrying these huge rifles or w/e. I think at most all I'd seen at all beforehand was a small handgun.

 

[Homeskulled Kid]

When I headed north, the culture shock was that people were nice. It was genuinely startling. No one was doing an impression of a clerk at a bank, and eye contact held longer than the usual millionth of a millisecond. You didn't have to pay for smiles and someone would actually come up and talk to you out of nowhere. Mental.

 

[Arcaneum]

Going from my country town in the UK to New York City was a humongous culture shock. People say places like that are an urban jungle and they were not wrong, I'm used to being able to see hills on the horizon and the sky when I looked upwards, used to actual personal space when walking around and such. Instead I could see only the tops of buildings when I looked up, buildings on the horizon and was almost constantly in contact with someone else whilst walking around. It was very much overwhelming at first, but towards the end I was warming to it!

 

[gimmepie]

When I went to Hong Kong (admittedly over a decade ago now) I was definitely struck by some things. The heavily armed airport security walking around, the sheer number of people you'd find occupying a single place, the number of homeless people openly begging on street corners and plenty of other things I'm sure. It was very different from Perth. No idea how much it's changed since then.