112Kviews
Someone In This Online Group Asked “What Was Something That Shocked You When You Visited A Foreign Country?” And 35 People Delivered
Being in a place where things are done differently than you are used to can cause confusion, anxiety and a feeling of uncertainty, even if the environment you are in is actually better than the one you feel more comfortable in. All those feelings can be described as a culture shock as a person is cut off from the cultural patterns that are familiar and has to adapt to something new.
Most often the term is used when talking about moving to another country or traveling. There are ways to soften the culture shock and one of them is asking people to share their own experiences on Reddit so you can prepare for it. We’re not sure what was the motivation of Kampfhamster248 to ask “What was something that shocked you when you visited a foreign country?” but it sure does help to know what people in the thread had to say before going somewhere for the first time.
Which one of these surprised you the most? Maybe you are from the aforementioned countries and can deny or confirm these claims? What would you personally answer if asked the question? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
More info: Reddit
This post may include affiliate links.
When I went to Japan I went to a bathhouse and my leg started spasming violently when I got in a tub. I thought I was having a stroke, but it turns out they have pools with electrical currents to promote longevity. That was literally my most shocking experience overseas
Falling snow. I'm Australian so while we have snow the chances of experiencing falling snow when you're on holidays is slim.
The first time I experienced falling snow was when I was in Paris at the age of 20. I LOST MY S**T. Squealing and had a ball. Everyone probably thought I was crazy but for me it was magical and amazing.
How wounderfull, that you got to experience a new country and your first snowfall at the same time.
How f**king clean Japan is. You can walk around Tokyo for a day and struggle to find as much as a gum wrapper on the ground. It is truly incredible.
When I moved to the Netherlands a few years ago from the USA I deliberately wrote down the things that struck me as strange a few weeks into it because I knew I wouldn't remember later, and here are a few.
Bicycles are everywhere and are a far more common mode of transport than cars... yet no one wears helmets.
A Dutch person telling you "I speak a little English" is like Stephen Hawking saying "I know a little physics." I really had no idea it could be so easy to move to another country where you don't speak the language, and that's because the Dutch are so amazing at English (unlike other countries, for example, TV here isn't dubbed but instead in original language and just subtitled).
Big Bird is blue in Holland! I mean, they claim he's Pino, Big Bird's cousin, but I'm not fooled. You know he really just moved here to explore an alternative lifestyle.
How price tags in America do not include Taxes!
Swedish babies are hardcore. And people are awesomely chill and friendly. In mid-January, it was knee-deep snow everywhere, yet in Stockholm is was pretty common to see parents enjoying a drink at a cafe, with a queue of prams outside in the snow.
The babies are wrapped up heavily yes, but they are fully comfortable leaving them outside like that. No fears over child-thievery, or worries about the cold. These kids are brought up to be metal right from the word go. It's awesome.
I imagine if you tried that in the UK (or especially US) there'd be hysteria and child services would relieve you of your parenting.
Used to be like that when I was a kid growing up in 70s England and Ireland.
How many homeless people there are in the USA. I've been to 30+ countries and I've seen more homeless in the US than anywhere else. I'd say even more than homeless dogs in Mexico. It's was extremely shocking.
It might seem that way, based on where you visited, but actually the US doesn't have the highest homeless rate, from what I could find. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_homeless_population One link I found. The US is down the list a bit. Granted, it’s hard to compare since countries may have different ways of defining and counting the homeless, but this chart has the US with a lower rate than the UK, Australia, France, Sweden, Mexico, Israel, Germany and Austria for example.
Living in Germany I have recently talked to an exchange student from Bangladesh. He was seriously shocked that people would stop at red traffic lights although there were no other cars/pedestrians around. Gave me a good laugh.
How truly polite the Japanese are. And how unbelievably clean the cities of Japan are.
How corrupt the police force is in Mexico.
This is silly, but in 2003 I visited Germany and was absolutely blown away that the escalators didn't start moving until you approached them (like automatic sliding doors). In America they're always just going. I thought it was genius.
How fat the majority of the people were in the midwest United States
Trains in India. Furious fighting, shoving, scratching, and clawing to get on, then for the rest of the eight hour journey scrupulous "I'm so sorry I brushed your foot with mine" politeness.
I have never taken a train but I see people hanging out of the train I think because of the lack of space. There are at least 4 or 5 people hanging out the doors and everything looks so cramped
How small all of the fruit was in England. One apple in the US is like two UK apples. I went through a lot of apples.
I think that's because the US sells a lot of genetically modified fruit...
The tap water in Vienna. Holy s**t it was delicious.
Try Sweden. You can’t even buy bottled water in Stockholm. I tried. They politely told me to just get water from a public fountain. Cleanest water ever. And I know there’s a lot of bottled water in the first district in Vienna.
French people (or Parisians, at least) are INTENSE about escalators. Your options are to either stand to one side (the right side, I think?) or sprint up the other side like an angry baboon is chasing you. If any part of you sticks out into the passing lane - you'll hear all about it.
When I went to New York I couldn't get over how familiar everything looked on my first day there. I must have seen way more films and TV shows filmed in Manhattan than I realized, but pretty much everywhere looked exactly as I expected it to.
And if you ask a New Yorker, “ he’ll tell you where to go!”
Load More Replies...
My first time in NYC I really had a strong feeling that I was in a movie set. It's weird feeling :)
Me too! I like movies set in NYC so yeah it was cool tho
Load More Replies... But you don’t get a sense of all the garbage, the smell and the poor road and sidewalk conditions in the movies
Heynowwwww. The combined odor of roasted street peanuts w/faint aftersmell of powdered sugar, stock broker perspiration, hot dumpsters and neurosis is the Official Scent of New York City.
Load More Replies...
I can relate to this. The first time I went to NYC, I felt like I was in a a familiar movie.
The first time I walked in to Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge and saw the judicial building I exclaimed loudly, "OMG! THATS LAW AND ORDER DUN DUN!" 😳 very embarrassing
Which is strange since most films set in the US are actually shot in Canada
Emigrated from Austria to Seattle in 1985 and lived there for a while, and travelling to other parts of the US before travelling to New York City for the first time. Was stunned by how different New York was from the rest of the US. And my heavy Austrian accent went completely unnoticed there.
...And yet they beat out Republican run cesspools like Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana in almost every metric, from graduation rates to poverty per capita. Funny that....lol.
Load More Replies...
Originally from Canada, spent a few weeks in China. I was shocked when I regularly saw kids squat down on the sidewalk and take a dump.
I lived in Japan for a year. The satellite radio at my school had a channel called "Rokki" that played the Rocky theme song on a loop 24:7.
I don't carry coins with me usually, which makes it tough to pee in a lot of Europe.
Yeah, in my family we call them pee coins and we don't use them to pay for things because we know we'll need them for a real emergency. We have a small kid and spend a lot of time out of the house. :D
How much Indian food there was in London.
I mean, Indians have been emigrating to the UK for years now. I think it is partially because they used to rule over our country for nearly 200 years
The traffic in Rome.
I live in Finland and it's unusual if my trip to university is delayed by a single second by other people, so people wasting over one hour stuck in traffic every day would be the most frustrating thing I can imagine.
Slovakia -> Austria. how clean can a country be. lack of dirt, roads and sidewalks in good condition, flowers everywhere. no old torn posters, no billboards on every lamp post.
I like to think that their state or police make them clean up against their own will but most probably they just like it that way and we got used to our dirt during communism.
Researchers at Yale University and Columbia University collaborated with the World Economic Forum to measure the cleanliness and environmental friendliness of over 180 countries around the world. Cleanest Countries in the World 2021 : 1. Denmark 2. Luxembourg 3. Switzerland 4. United Kingdom 5. France 6. Austria 7. Finland 8. Sweden 9. Norway 10. Germany
When I visited Hollywood, I couldn't believe how disgustingly dirty it was, and how unsafe I felt! It may just have been that I was unlucky enough to experience a couple of crazy incidents in my first two nights, but it definitely wasn't all the glitz and
ALSO: people seem to be assuming that Hollywood Boulevard was the only place I saw in the whole of LA, and that I've condemned the city because of this one area. This isn't true. I was just stating that it was shocking to me that it was so different to my expectations, but I had an awesome time in LA, ventured around to multiple different area, and even had a great night out in Hollywood at an insane nightclub. Hell, even though it was shocking at first, I even like that I now have some crazy stories to tell from my time there!
It’s the most plastic, fake place I have ever been. Strange because just north in Ventura County it’s not quite the same.
Shops are closed on Sunday in France except Subway and McDonalds
There are a lot of European countries where stores are closed on sunday.
When I went to America McDonalds had refillable Dr Pepper. I was in heaven.
The parking in Portugal is shocking the whole country seems to park their cars like they have stolen them.
Spotted a Ferris Wheel & Resort surrounding a reservoir in Afghanistan. Wasn't prepared for that at all.
Also, the social aggressiveness of Females in Iceland! They will court a male in a heartbeat.
In South Korea there is no seperate shower in the bathroom. The showerhead sprays directly on the floor and there is a drain in the corner of the room.
How expensive the alcohol is in Australia. I had to sit down after I saw the 40 dollar crate of beer.
When I was very young I was suprised about how many buildings were there in Hong Kong. It was also suprising about how we had to use the subway system a lot.
Worlds most vertical city. I say that because HK island has more vertical buildings than Kowloon, New Territories…
Load More Replies...
US: You can turn right in red light, but if you turn left in green light, you may easily get a car crash if not careful...
Some places it's illegal to turn right on red. And yes, turning left on green, there are no turns at some lights, we have jug handles (nj). My brother was in a serious motorcycle accident because someone turned left at a light right in front of him, my brother had the right of way. Almost cost him his life.
Load More Replies...
I'm glad everywhere has toilets now. I was really shocked by Spanish toilets in the 1990s.
I live in New England. Driving down I-95 to Florida is like visiting a foreign country.
By far my biggest shock was the lack of universal healthcare in other countries (I'm british) & also lack of basic social support. Seeing disabled people begging in the street was shocking & I couldn't understand why all the people who saw it didn't feel deeply ashamed. (Plus when I saw a McDonald's with an armed guard in Manilla)
I live in India, you should not give money to disabled people, few of them are acting, many will buy alcohol few belong to a group that kidnaps kids and make them beg for profits and make them disabled. It's hideous.
Load More Replies...
India: how locals didn't know their neighborhoods. We needed to get to a street nearby and no one we asked knew what we were talking about. It turned out it was three streets over.
It's less that they don't know the names, and more that they're never told. Streets in India don't have signs with their names on them. My mom, who'd lived in Pune's Kothrud district for 3 decades, didn't know most of the street names until she heard them on Google Maps. Instead of asking for street locations, it's better to just go with landmarks.
Load More Replies... 
I feel like this should be one of those lists Pandas could add their own post to. One shock when I was visiting Manchester, UK, was how much litter was everywhere, including in the parks. Not that there's no litter in Canada. It was the amount that shocked me. I watch a lot of British media and did some research before I went, so some things I was prepared for.
I've heard this from other people recently; that the litter situation in the UK is surprisingly bad. Anybody know why that is?
Load More Replies...
Getting a haircut in England. 😳 Total eye opener. Tip the washer grrrrrl, and never EVER say “It’s okay, I will just towel dry it” eep. Then I mistakenly opened my banana to eat while standing on the sidewalk watching an antinuclear demonstration. One would have thought I slapped the Queen. Truth is I had horrible jet lag, having flown in from Hawaii and honestly if the Queen had shown up and given me the side eye, I probably wouldn’t have noticed
When I was very young I was suprised about how many buildings were there in Hong Kong. It was also suprising about how we had to use the subway system a lot.
Worlds most vertical city. I say that because HK island has more vertical buildings than Kowloon, New Territories…
Load More Replies... US: You can turn right in red light, but if you turn left in green light, you may easily get a car crash if not careful...
Some places it's illegal to turn right on red. And yes, turning left on green, there are no turns at some lights, we have jug handles (nj). My brother was in a serious motorcycle accident because someone turned left at a light right in front of him, my brother had the right of way. Almost cost him his life.
Load More Replies... I'm glad everywhere has toilets now. I was really shocked by Spanish toilets in the 1990s.
I live in New England. Driving down I-95 to Florida is like visiting a foreign country.
By far my biggest shock was the lack of universal healthcare in other countries (I'm british) & also lack of basic social support. Seeing disabled people begging in the street was shocking & I couldn't understand why all the people who saw it didn't feel deeply ashamed. (Plus when I saw a McDonald's with an armed guard in Manilla)
I live in India, you should not give money to disabled people, few of them are acting, many will buy alcohol few belong to a group that kidnaps kids and make them beg for profits and make them disabled. It's hideous.
Load More Replies... India: how locals didn't know their neighborhoods. We needed to get to a street nearby and no one we asked knew what we were talking about. It turned out it was three streets over.
It's less that they don't know the names, and more that they're never told. Streets in India don't have signs with their names on them. My mom, who'd lived in Pune's Kothrud district for 3 decades, didn't know most of the street names until she heard them on Google Maps. Instead of asking for street locations, it's better to just go with landmarks.
Load More Replies... I feel like this should be one of those lists Pandas could add their own post to. One shock when I was visiting Manchester, UK, was how much litter was everywhere, including in the parks. Not that there's no litter in Canada. It was the amount that shocked me. I watch a lot of British media and did some research before I went, so some things I was prepared for.
I've heard this from other people recently; that the litter situation in the UK is surprisingly bad. Anybody know why that is?
Load More Replies... Getting a haircut in England. 😳 Total eye opener. Tip the washer grrrrrl, and never EVER say “It’s okay, I will just towel dry it” eep. Then I mistakenly opened my banana to eat while standing on the sidewalk watching an antinuclear demonstration. One would have thought I slapped the Queen. Truth is I had horrible jet lag, having flown in from Hawaii and honestly if the Queen had shown up and given me the side eye, I probably wouldn’t have noticed
