Manhattan, New York: First time i went there for vacation is so surprised about how there were hundreds of people just walking minding their own business in the streets. Like you don't exist to them it was quite refreshing it's the opposite where i come from. Oh and the tall buildings had my head titlted upwards most of the time.
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Your experiences of culture shock.
- Thread starter Go_Ly_Dow
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Why?
I would find it interesting to know. I think they are some of the most beautiful woman in the world.
Large portions are great because you can have some later. I hardly ever eat my entire order at a restaurant.
Man, lemon granitas were the fuckin' tits!you should have asked for a granita every morning
You sure this is Japan, because this is EXACTLY how I felt when I lived in China.
It's like they're horses with those patches on their heads that block the view from the side.
Like these people don't have peripheral vision.
Stopping right at the end of an escalator or walking out of a fucking store without looking.
And the traffic..... I'm glad I never had to drive a car while in China. I've been in 4 car collisions while being a passenger in a taxi.
No spatial awareness whatsoever. (it's mostly just not giving a fuck or not seeing how it's their problem or it's not considered offensive/annoying anyway)
clay_ghost
Member
I will say that the younger generation mostly no longer hold this view , however now the stereotypes sentiment have moved towards the new immigrates or foreign workers (mostly towards China ).
To be fair , you can read from this very thread why some China Chinese's behavior can give them this stigma .
Same in Taiwan. Walking in a row of 3 down the sidewalk, stopping intermittently for no reason? Sure. Standing in a doorway to have a conversation with 4 other people? Why not. As a former resident of NYC, this still triggers me way too hard.
Also, there are no fucking trash cans on the streets in my city. Sometimes a guy has to throw something away, god damn it.
Glad to hear that. I don't have much experience with Singapore's youth as I'm mostly there for conferences/business and my dealings have always been with older folks.
Going to mainland China as a Konger has shocked me in many ways on how different we are. I can list a lot of things but I'll just talk about the most recent one.
Total disregard for traffic signals. If it's clear, vehicles will just go. I'm walking with my friend, crossing a green light, when a bus comes up to the intersection and honks at us. I was wondering why at first until I finally went across the road to see cars just zipping through the red light.
I expressed my shock to my friend and he calmly told me "that's just how it is here, it's more efficient too I think." Oppositely, I tell him this doesn't happen at all in Hong Kong. We both live in Canada so I just tell him Hong Kong drivers follow traffic laws like Canadians, the main difference is that HK drivers tend to leave no room between cars and there are a lot more jaywalkers. He in turn was amazed.
Oddly enough, I didn't really experience this in Beijing or Shanghai, maybe it was just a Foshan thing.
Total disregard for traffic signals. If it's clear, vehicles will just go. I'm walking with my friend, crossing a green light, when a bus comes up to the intersection and honks at us. I was wondering why at first until I finally went across the road to see cars just zipping through the red light.
I expressed my shock to my friend and he calmly told me "that's just how it is here, it's more efficient too I think." Oppositely, I tell him this doesn't happen at all in Hong Kong. We both live in Canada so I just tell him Hong Kong drivers follow traffic laws like Canadians, the main difference is that HK drivers tend to leave no room between cars and there are a lot more jaywalkers. He in turn was amazed.
Oddly enough, I didn't really experience this in Beijing or Shanghai, maybe it was just a Foshan thing.
LegendofDragoonLives
Member
US & Canada
- Using cellphones on an obnoxious level. A pet peeve of mine is if we're out somewhere and someone constantly looks at their fucking during dinner. You're not that important, cut it out yo. Just enjoy the moment with people around you smh. I've listened to Louis CK make a joke about texting 10 people and seeing who texts back. Then I find out later on, this is a real thing...
- The cold bruh... :\
US
- Gradual but people sticking to themselves for everything. Empty streets and lack of sense of community compared to Europe. Stay to yourselves and mind your own business. Meh. I saw this in Canada but it's far less prevalent than the States.
- "I'm sorry" is the most worthless term in United States.
- Not using vacation, not seeing the world. Lack of overall curiosity.
Canada
- Eh. Even I say it now.
Germany
- This was hilarious. So I went on a euro vacation with my buddy who was on his first European trip. We were on some more Latin countries first drinking cappuccinos every early morning. Went to Munich and we sit outside a pub to get some drinks. My buddy says cappuccino, and the waiter says in the most German accent ever "We don't sell those here, we have beer." I was laughing at him for the rest of the night.
It was very small culture shock (for him really), but the look the waiter gave him and the way he said it was absolutely incredible. Hilarious.
- Using cellphones on an obnoxious level. A pet peeve of mine is if we're out somewhere and someone constantly looks at their fucking during dinner. You're not that important, cut it out yo. Just enjoy the moment with people around you smh. I've listened to Louis CK make a joke about texting 10 people and seeing who texts back. Then I find out later on, this is a real thing...
- The cold bruh... :\
US
- Gradual but people sticking to themselves for everything. Empty streets and lack of sense of community compared to Europe. Stay to yourselves and mind your own business. Meh. I saw this in Canada but it's far less prevalent than the States.
- "I'm sorry" is the most worthless term in United States.
- Not using vacation, not seeing the world. Lack of overall curiosity.
Canada
- Eh. Even I say it now.
Germany
- This was hilarious. So I went on a euro vacation with my buddy who was on his first European trip. We were on some more Latin countries first drinking cappuccinos every early morning. Went to Munich and we sit outside a pub to get some drinks. My buddy says cappuccino, and the waiter says in the most German accent ever "We don't sell those here, we have beer." I was laughing at him for the rest of the night.
It was very small culture shock (for him really), but the look the waiter gave him and the way he said it was absolutely incredible. Hilarious.I was in some Swedish university town and when I realised that hundreds of bikes outside the train station were not locked to anything I burst out laughing.
https://megancase.wordpress.com/2006/11/04/things-i-like-about-sweden-part-1-of-a-new-series/
https://megancase.wordpress.com/2006/11/04/things-i-like-about-sweden-part-1-of-a-new-series/
Hah, I noticed it less in Taiwan but yeah.
Me and my friends would always joke about stuff like that. I'm from a city in the Netherlands but I always thought I had people figured out when walking down the street, as in;
I can predict where people will go or what their route is gonna be.
But not in China, it's chaos! People swerving, stopping randomly, suddenly sidestepping, turning around and walking into you, people buried into their phones so deeply they walk into others, it's kind of fun though (but it can be frustrating).
Yeah the trashcan thing is also something that bugged me in Taiwan. Think I had one of my Taiwanese friends explain it as;
Once they had lot of trashcans everywhere but people started to dump their garbage from their homes in them and they would be filled up and overflowing constantly so the solution the government came up with is: remove the public trashcans.
Athough I don't know if that's actually what happened.
Ohhh ohh I forgot:
I thought those were Icecream trucks in Taiwan (the ones with the lovely melody playing). :-D
Us Americans are to fat and don't walk up escalators. They move so we don't have to, they way God intended.
This definitely happens in Shanghai.
I feel like with most things in (mainland) China; If you can get away with it, it's ok.
Sunster
Member
Philippines: neighborhoods (barangay) are so tightly knit compared to the US. Everyone is out of their house talking, laughing, and cooking in the street. Or they were in the places I saw. In the US, neighborhood streets are mostly empty except for some kids, dog walkers, and cars. Each home is a fortress of solitude.
Mammoth Jones
Member
Mayonnaise.
always crazy bacon
Banned
Pretty damn civilized compared to me standing in the queue for the checkout in a Chinese Walmart and some woman in front of me just letting her son piss directly on the floor there like it was nothing.
Haha yes! I thought they were so whimsical at first until I realized dumpsters aren't a thing here and they are the only way to get rid of trash. Now I respect my icecream-truck-garbage-truck time. Just tossed a bag in there like 10 minutes ago, in fact. That's where like 90% of my conversations with my neighbors happen.
That's not as bad as letting your kid pee into a public water dispenser. Almost made me throw up.
TommyTosser
Member
Is this true? You get a fine and possibly worse if you get caught in a major city in the UK
Patrick S.
Banned
Reading on GAF that a fellow Gaffer from the US is now in debt for more than a hundred thousand US Dollars because he was sick.
Reading on GAF how American people have assault rifles and shotguns next to their bed in case someone might try o burglarize them, and have a Glock in their car's glovebox.
Reading on GAF how American people have assault rifles and shotguns next to their bed in case someone might try o burglarize them, and have a Glock in their car's glovebox.
They government even ran a campaign against it leading up to the 2008 olympics:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/world/asia/17manners.html
Was dating a Taiwanese girl last year who just moved to the States and before she moved here she went backpacking though all of Taiwan.
Showed me a ton of videos and I was honestly shocked by how safe her overall trip was. She even made a bunch of random friends who joined her for a part of her adventure.
Showed me a ton of videos and I was honestly shocked by how safe her overall trip was. She even made a bunch of random friends who joined her for a part of her adventure.
Why would you be shocked that Taiwan is safe? I don't really understand.
Skellig Gra
Member
Greek Islands, not being able to flush the toilet paper. Although I was already sort of prepared because of prior threads on GAF about that sort of thing.
Taiwan is incredibly safe everywhere, one of the safest places in the world. Very low risk of theft or assault. No firearms, either. There are gangsters, but they leave normies alone; some of them are even pretty friendly. And it's a good thing, because once you head east of the major cities into the mountains, it is pitch fucking black at night. Ain't no one gonna hear you scream.
nkarafo
Member
Just fold your shit in the paper so you can't see it and prevent odors from getting out. And toilet trash cans have a lid so everything is enclosed. Empty the trash can and place a new bag in it often, they are small in size so you don't get to fill it with too much used paper anyway. And if you are still paranoid about smell, you can always use special aromatic toilet papers or baby wipes.
Yes, our pipe system sucks but there is a civilized way to deal with it.
Sunster
Member
marimorimo
Member
Japan: I used to live at a densely populated residential area in Tokyo. I would walk towards a grocery store at a fast pace for more than 20 minutes passing by many, many houses yet would not meet a single soul on the way.
Philippines: reverse culture shock. People. Everywhere. At all places and at all hours. You are never alone. Chaos on all roads in Metro Manila.
USA: The first time I went to the USA was in 2013 at Orlando, Florida. I was genuinely shocked to find that 70% of service staff were blacks while the rest were either Latinos or Filipinos. I thought there would be more diversity. Most staff were friendly, but it's also in the USA where I got the worse service of my life. I visited New York a year later and there was a bit more diversity, but the trend of receiving the worst service ever continued. I also find some places/service in the USA more ghetto than that a 3rd world country (where I come from).
India: Went to New Delhi, there was a thick cloud of dust and smog everywhere that people kept insisting was "fog". Yeah....if fog smelled like gasoline fumes. Visibility was so low I could hardly make out the outline of the adjacent building from my hotel window.
Also, 90% of vehicles had some sort of dent in them. It was a rare sight to see a pristine, non-dented car.
Paris: People parking their tiny cars literally bumper to bumper along the curb. No idea how they go in or back out.
WTF. Did you actually witness this?
Philippines: reverse culture shock. People. Everywhere. At all places and at all hours. You are never alone. Chaos on all roads in Metro Manila.
USA: The first time I went to the USA was in 2013 at Orlando, Florida. I was genuinely shocked to find that 70% of service staff were blacks while the rest were either Latinos or Filipinos. I thought there would be more diversity. Most staff were friendly, but it's also in the USA where I got the worse service of my life. I visited New York a year later and there was a bit more diversity, but the trend of receiving the worst service ever continued. I also find some places/service in the USA more ghetto than that a 3rd world country (where I come from).
India: Went to New Delhi, there was a thick cloud of dust and smog everywhere that people kept insisting was "fog". Yeah....if fog smelled like gasoline fumes. Visibility was so low I could hardly make out the outline of the adjacent building from my hotel window.
Also, 90% of vehicles had some sort of dent in them. It was a rare sight to see a pristine, non-dented car.
Paris: People parking their tiny cars literally bumper to bumper along the curb. No idea how they go in or back out.
WTF. Did you actually witness this?
Sunster
Member
yes customer service is not a huge priority here for some reason.
Rolanderson
Member
I don't understand why Americans flush toilet paper, it's like you're asking to have your toilets clogged at all times.
It's pretty normal in western europe as well. Only exceptions I can think of are rural areas where there might be a lack of a proper sewage system.
We got them big pipes. No but seriously, I haven't had a toilet clog for my entire adult life.
That's not just America. And no, that doesn't happen as often as you apparently think it does.
marimorimo
Member
Maybe because you live in the city? My husband's family live in Yokohama (although in a obscure area a bit farther out in the mountains) and they have lots of squirrels around their home. They have a grove of trees/bamboo behind their house which is probably where they live.
More:
France: Could not find a place to eat breakfast that wasn't croissant and coffee at 10:00 in the morning.
Yeah, my dad saw it first and pointed it out to me. I can't for the life of me remember where it happened (we did a lot of traveling then) but the kid was peeing into one of these:
I wouldn't have been so grossed out if it was the other type of water dispenser. The ones with hot and cold taps that were a little further away from the sink.
USA: People are so, so, so kind. Like, incredibly so. I come from a part in Colombia where people are famous for how warm we are, but in contrast Bogota is a cold shithole with people that would walk over you if that gives them one more minute in their lives. I was expectinvg the worst for NYC, thinking it was going to be worse than that. Nothing furthest from the truth. People were always kind, polite, ready to help you even if you didn't ask for it. It was a really heartwarming experience. Double fuck Bogota after this, you pretentious assholes.
Food portions are just too damn big. I wanted to get a "traditional american breakfast" and was presented with 5 very thick pancakes with syrup, bacon, all that stuff. I felt like my cholesterol was shooting to the stars, and don't get me started on the size of the other meals!
One kinda bad thing was that food is really savourless there. Like, I understand why sauces are important, everything tastes like water by itself. I assume it is because out-of-farm food is really expensive, so the "normal" food is all preservative filled. it's just not the same.
Food portions are just too damn big. I wanted to get a "traditional american breakfast" and was presented with 5 very thick pancakes with syrup, bacon, all that stuff. I felt like my cholesterol was shooting to the stars, and don't get me started on the size of the other meals!
One kinda bad thing was that food is really savourless there. Like, I understand why sauces are important, everything tastes like water by itself. I assume it is because out-of-farm food is really expensive, so the "normal" food is all preservative filled. it's just not the same.
Chuckie
Member
Today I learned punctuation is really important.
I meant this:
No.
Italians eat pasta with just a fork.
NYC gets a bad rap. Lived there for 4 years, have gone to visit a few times since, and people are always good to me. Find a good diner or deli and go a couple times a week and you'll meet some great people.
Sunster
Member
yea our food is made on an assembly line basically.
marimorimo
Member
Damn. Just imagining it makes me want to puke too!
Paris trip as a kid: saw a man shitting in the street in broad daylight. Other people pissing.
South Africa: dead bodies lying by the side of the road.
South Africa: teachers smoking in class.
Australia (Sydney): overt racism by whites against indigenous people or those of Greek descent.
USA: people carrying firearms
Everywhere: foreign toilets.
Returning to the UK after extended periods abroad: having to queue for ages just to buy a fucking drink in a pub.
South Africa: dead bodies lying by the side of the road.
South Africa: teachers smoking in class.
Australia (Sydney): overt racism by whites against indigenous people or those of Greek descent.
USA: people carrying firearms
Everywhere: foreign toilets.
Returning to the UK after extended periods abroad: having to queue for ages just to buy a fucking drink in a pub.
Yeah, same for Italy. Spain & Portugal less so.
Tal Shiar Agent
Banned
Blasphemer. It's fork only. Always. Everywhere.
Oof, yeah. The first time I went to a grocery store in Thailand and saw how meat was displayed was an eye-opener.
FrontalMonk
Banned
Is this seriously a weird thing? Like...do non-Americans just not engage in small talk? i.e. discussing vapid shit that doesn't matter when you don't have anything to talk about and don't want to just have an awkward silence, like the weather, traffic, weekend plans, etc. The "hi how are you" "fine and you" is just part and parcel with that.
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