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11 “Culture Shocks” That This New Zealander Experienced After Relocating To The US
We live in a world where a lot of things we learn through books, movies, and the internet. But one of the most common and exciting ways to learn more about other cultures is by traveling. For a lot of people, this became an interesting and eye-opening experience, so a lot of them like to share what they have seen and heard, and compare this experience with how things are run “at home.” Bored Panda already covered some of the stories of people who decided to share their cultural shocks, one of these stories you can find here.
When people talk about their travels, very often a place they refer to as culturally shocking is the United States. One of the recent is examples is TikTok user Jazz Thornton who started sharing what things she finds weird and different in the US. The woman who is from New Zealand relocated from her country to the United States and has already become viral on TikTok with her funny and entertaining videos.
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School At 7.30 Am
You'll start school at 7:30 in the morning. Are teenagers functioning at 7:30 in the morning, because where I'm from, we start school at 9 AM every day. That means that you have to get up at like, 6 AM something. I wasn't getting out of bed until like 7:30 AM. Who decided that teenagers work best at 7:30 AM?
What does that matter? So do parents in europe, but they go to work and the kids make their own way to school.
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In my country , My classes started at 7am ... not sure about now (15 year later) but for sure it doesn't start at 09am :)
LOL the kids today are too smart to sing that song.
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Depends on where you go to school. There’s no “American start time” for what hour school begins. Not even in the same county, let alone the same country.
When I went to high school, I started at 7:45am. The elementary school started at 9am. Now the elementary school starts earlier and the high school starts at 9am. I am glad they changed it. I wish they had when I was in school.
Science tells us that teenagers' circadian rhythms mean they function best beginning around 9 AM. In most US schools, high school starts first, then middle school, then elementary school. Dismissal is in the same order. But since most working parents have to be at work at 8 AM, it makes things that much harder. The oldest student can't be there to get their siblings on the bus. Many younger students have to start before-school care at 7:30 AM or earlier, so by the time school actually starts, they've already been then an hour or more.
Do everyone live super far from schools? Or why aren't schools built where people live? Can't kids, especially older ones, just walk or bike to school?
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This is starting to change as research is finding out how damaging the lack of sleep, and the work load that kids today are experiencing.....along with all the blue light pollution that disrupts their sleep as they are more dependent on electronics for education.
They need to leave enough time after school for the teachers' 2nd jobs, and like, sports and stuff I guess
It is not so different in Quebec. When I was in school, primary school started at 9am. But High school was 8h30am then College was 8am. As my workdays are also 8am now.
A lot of the time it's so school buses can be re-used over and over by staggering the start times -- high school is earliest, middle school, appropriately, in the middle, and grade school (Kindergarten through grade 6, usually (sometimes it's K-4 or K-5, with the older kids in the middle school). MY contention though is that it should be reversed. The youngest kids should go in earliest as they are the ones who really need to be cared for in time for parents to get to work, and they're usually awake early anyway.)
Parents have to be at work to feed the wallets of the 1%. All you have to do is see the screaming demands to have in person schools resume during the last two years to see that the purpose of school is so that parents can be at work.
I am all for early school so there are enough daylight hours left after school for some play.
I am all for early school, so children have enough daylight hours to play.
I grew up in South Africa, bell rang at 7:30 to go to your home room or assembly (enough time for parents to start work at 8:30/9am), then you go to your classes at 8am / 8:30 am, school finishes at around 1:30/2pm. That gives you enought time for home work and after school activities, sports etc. Kids fallling asleep in class means they didn't go to bed early, nothing to do with waking up early to go to sachool.
The system is created to work with the work schedules that are most common with employers. Yes, it can be a pain for unstructured households, but when I was going to school a proper bedtime was MANDATED, to coincide with getting sufficient rest to coincide with the start of school. Of course, that was when adults were responsible parents and not their children's buddies. Now it is coddling and blaming the teachers for their brat's failure.
U GUYS HAVE SCHOOL AT 7?? LUCKYYYYY we have school at 6 so um yeah
No, no we don’t function at that time, it’s shitty how they expect us to do that.
Wow I didn't know this. In Ireland we also start and 9 and I still thought that was too early.
They crowd in extra AP classes because the competition for University is so intense. Not everyone starts at 7:30. My high school in LA began at 8:25. The school I teach at in Australia starts at 8:50
At my high school(so glad to be out of there), the bus picked us up at 6:30 because the elementary school bus came at 7:30; why it is like this, I have no idea. In my freshman year, I had to get up at something like 5:30 just to barely make it to the bus stop. Classes didn’t start until 7:40. The worst 4 years of my life, and that’s not including the pandemic or my epilepsy diagnosis in my junior year.
luckily this is not the case in all states. Midwest more so, Washington state - schools start at 9 - I live between high school and elementary school and see kids walking to school at 9 everyday ;)
Where I grew up some kids have to be up a around 5 so they can catch the bus and ride it for an hour or more just to get so school.
I'm from the EU and school always started at 8am... and when I was 17-18 I had an early psychology class on tuesdays so I had to be at school at 7:10am (which meant taking the 5:50am bus to get there on time). My uni classes also occasionally started at 7:10am (and would sometimes last until 9pm)
Many counties use the same buses for all grades. Therefor, they have to stagger start times. High school starts first (because the teens usually have more to do AFTER school), then middle, then elementary. Then the release times are staggered too. Same fleet of buses working all day to shuttle kids to and from three levels of schools.
Like in any other country, except here there are also adults on their way to work and it still works.
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Granted it's been a LONG time, but my schooling never started before 8am
Pretty sure New Zealand has one of the best education system in the world. Why in the world would she move here? I rather live there, that's for sure.
In Brazil the class begins at 7:15 AM - you must be at the school at least a couple of minutes earlier. Waking up at 6 is so normal
Wow. All these years I’ve never known that . I thought their day started at 9am like most civilised countries , 7.30 am is not civilised in my humble opinion 😳
It is said in CZ, that we start at 8.00 (most schools) is due to the fact that Kaiser Franz Joseph (like more than 100 years ago) was an early bird and woke up very early in the morning, started working arround 6 a.m. so he made his subjects to get up early as well. So many professions starts at 6 am, some at 7, many of 8. But I don't know if it is true or just an urban legend
dude, I can't get out of bed by then. 8 o'clock at least, but at most, prob 10
Thank god I’m homeschooled. I used to wake up at 7:00 but now because I’m a teenager I usually wake up from 7:30 to 8. And I start school at around 9:30 to 10:00 and finish before lunch. I love homeschooling.
8:45 in the UK, at least when I was in school, for me school finished at 3:05 in the afternoon. xP
My school in Australia started about 8.47 and finished exactly 3.03
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For us school started at 9am for pre-school, 8:30am for primary school and 8:10am for secondary school. At uni...anything goes if you wake up.
uummm,.. I was in school by 7 am. Woke up 5 to take the bus. Mind you parents to work at 11am-12pm
Boy will that be a surprise for the Kiwi if she's going to visit Germany... 07:30 is not uncommon here.
7:30 is to early? man.. in my place, school start at 7AM.. even some student council members had to arrive earlier
'i Really Wish I Had An Accent'
So the other day I was on a conversation with an American, and she looked me in the eyes and goes, 'man, I really wish I had an accent. I just speak normally.' Which I was like, 'ma'am, you do realize that the USA is not a main character, right?' You do have an accent to absolutely everyone who is not American.
I love the U.S BECAUSE one of the reasons that i love it here is that most U.S citizens have an accent. Californians have their own accent, Southern accents, New York and New Jersey accents. I love hearing them all
It's Really Expensive To Have A Baby In The USA
It cost about $50,000 to birth the baby. These children are putting you in debt. In New Zealand hospitals are completely free. So you could be in there for like four months afterwards and you wouldn't have to pay a thing. We do pay taxes to obviously cover that.
I'm so glad I'm Canadian. I'd rather pay .13cents on top of the price tag amount then pay for medical direct. I've had 2 kids. They have had surgeries, I have had several surgeries(disabled) and long term stay admitted to hospital(almost dying twice) all my ultrasounds, MRIs, PET scans, xrays, blood work, infertility treatments, eye exams, ER visits, every single specialist doctor plus every GP visit(including house visits) midwife appointments, at home follow up after delivery..free parental or breastfeeding support etc.. all of it, I wouldn't be able to pay that out of pocket. No matter how much taxes I have paid or will pay in life, it wouldn't come anywhere near the bills that a America charges. Oh and kids have free dental to 25 too. Some cosmetic stuff is covered depending on the cause/effects too
Jazz is a well-known mental health activist film director and book author. The 26-year-old woman’s work is related to spreading awareness and educating people about sensitive mental health problems that many individuals suffer from. For this reason, her and her friend started an organization called Voices of Hope. Jazz tries and enjoys encouraging people to believe in themselves, to have a hope that things will get better. She likes to remind this to people through her videos.
The Price That Is Displayed Is Not The Final Price
Like today I went and bought a dress and the price tag that I saw on it when I actually went to go check out, it was like $10 more, because they add tax on after. And then when you're in restaurants and stuff, it's the taxes added and the tipping is added so like nothing is the normal price. Like if that happened to me in New Zealand and I went to pay for something and it was like more than what the price tag was, I'd be like, 'I'm sorry, what?'
Tipping
Tipping is literally not a thing where I'm from, like, again, America with the unnecessary math. How do I calculate this? What am I supposed to give someone? In New Zealand, the minimum wage is $20. That's for an adult. In America, it's $7.25. Now, keeping in mind that our currency is a lot weaker than America, it equals out to be $14.10 in minimum wage, which is double the minimum wage here. But also do people make more money from tips?
Tipping needs to be eliminated. I go to a small coffee shop in Toronto where the woman picks up the tip jar and shakes it while you are paying. To show me hey look at the tip jar. It lasts only a second but it is very off putting. Tipping is getting out of hand. I am already paying for a service. I live on a budget and getting haircuts and takeout coffee should not feel like pressure to tip. Pay a living wage
American Portion Sizes
So I'm on week two here and I discovered very early on that a lot of your portion sizes, like, the large is a very large. I'm not used to it where I'm from. So, I was like, was this so big? So tonight, right? I was like okay, I'm going to get a small. This is what I got tonight. Please, is someone pranking me? This is the size of my palm. This is my noodle box.
It's wild and depends on the restaurant. If you want big portions you can eat for days, BBQ and those Greek family restaurants serve absurd amounts of food for the price you'll spend. Chain restaurants vary widely.
Dogs In Stores
So you're telling me that here in America, you can bring your dogs into stores with you? Like, guys yesterday I was at H&M, right? And it was like four dogs in the store. I am so here for it. This is not a thing that we see in New Zealand and I need it. As long as I can pet all of the dogs.
The woman also uploads goofy and lighthearted content on her TikTok platform. One of these is related to her relocation to the United States. In her TikToks, the woman doesn't hide her surprise at how different some of the things in the US are. It might seem that some of these things are already well known. Not knowing how to tip waiters in a restaurant and having to pay for having a baby at the hospital are only a couple of these examples. The woman also shared some of the lesser known facts about when American kids start their school day and that people are allowed to bring their dogs to stores.
Which one of these things do you find weird? Or maybe you know something that wasn’t shared on this list? Don’t forget to leave your thoughts in the comments down below!
Scam Calls
I got an American number not too long ago and on the day that I did I had like four scam calls in one day. And now they just- every day, multiple times a day, is just scam calls. I think in New Zealand I got like one scam call every two months.
Burger And Sandwich
Can someone please explain to me why they call this a burger, but they call this a sandwich. If it's beef it's a burger. If it's chicken, it's a sandwich, but they're both in a bun.
Ground beef is called hamburger. In the 30’s it was called a hamburger sandwich, but then it was shortened.
Biscuits And Gravy
All I'm imagining right now is that kind of thing. That beautiful biscuit cover in meat sauce. It just looks nasty.
Spray Cheese
This does not exist where I'm from. I've been told to eat it only with Ritz crackers so you have put your thumb on it.
I remember back when Bored Panda used to focus on creative stuff, like artists, and the like. Now it's just tiktok and reddit reposts...
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How many more of these posts? We've read similar many many times! Was hoping for something different to be told but no! All the same
If at least once in a while it was about another country than the US
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Can I point out that all of New Zealand fits into the US 37 times, so, yeah, we have variations across the US even some Americans will never see in person. Get. Over. It. Can we now see cute animals, artwork, and maybe Brutus & Pixie comics to get both?
Another New Zealander here. I see this person has already adopted the intensely irritating habit of unnecessarily saying "like" in every damned utterance.
This chick just seems stupid and probably a bad representative for NZ.
I'm not American, but change the frigging record... We read the same lists over and over.
I am assuming she is asking these questions in a video because she nobody in America wants to talk to her.
Not an astute summary. You probably think.Lorde's second two albums have merit on nationality alone.
I remember back when Bored Panda used to focus on creative stuff, like artists, and the like. Now it's just tiktok and reddit reposts...
Load More Replies... How many more of these posts? We've read similar many many times! Was hoping for something different to be told but no! All the same
If at least once in a while it was about another country than the US
Load More Replies... Can I point out that all of New Zealand fits into the US 37 times, so, yeah, we have variations across the US even some Americans will never see in person. Get. Over. It. Can we now see cute animals, artwork, and maybe Brutus & Pixie comics to get both?
Another New Zealander here. I see this person has already adopted the intensely irritating habit of unnecessarily saying "like" in every damned utterance.
This chick just seems stupid and probably a bad representative for NZ.
I'm not American, but change the frigging record... We read the same lists over and over.
I am assuming she is asking these questions in a video because she nobody in America wants to talk to her.
Not an astute summary. You probably think.Lorde's second two albums have merit on nationality alone.
