What are your culture shocks about other countries?

[pisto pesto pasta]

Let's talk about things people do differently in other countries

I'll start :

My home country is Russia.

- In the US students can choose what classes to take, different grades can take the same classes, therefore some classes can have more than 100 students...
We can't choose our classes until high school but even then we're not really choosing them, it's basically just majors. You're still required to take the classes that are not in your major field but you get less hours of them. Also the entire grade has to take the same classes, different grades will never end up on the same class.

- From what my friend told me in Austria people rarely ever adapt new things. For example many places still lack 4G connection, escalators and online pay because they feel like they don't need it. Yet they feel fine.
In Russia most places have those as a must.

- Germany has adapted a new recycling police recently which makes you pay extra for bottles so that you return then after and recycle them and get your money back
As a teenager with 2 to 5$ of daily allowance this sounds like a nightmare to me

[heartsdotexe]

I live in the US.

Any country with free healthcare OR at the very least, reasonable healthcare. I know in other countries you may have to wait long times to get in at some sort of doctor, but it’s not really any better here. Have to wait 8 months to get in at the dentist here, my teeth need help and I can’t get it. And just prices in the US, I’m fortunate enough to be able to afford it with insurance but I know some people who simply can’t go to the doctor because they don’t have good insurance. Any country with a well put together healthcare system absolutely blows me away. It’s mind boggling for me. America needs to take notes LOL

In Japan there is a cat festival called Bake Neko. To join in on festivities, you have to be dressed up as a cat. What I’d do to have something like that here in America! Dress up like a cat here and you get bullied and judged. (I still do it anyways I don’t let the haters get to me) And cosplay in general is a very common thing in Japan from what it seems. Again, being bullied and judged in America for cosplay.

Also, probably not culture shock, but if some day I could go to Australia I would probably freak out because I love Bluey and simply being there would make me absolutely flip. I’d probably buy more merch than what I could bring home on the plane!

[pisto pesto pasta]

bump ^ _ ^

[leachface]

Im from the United States, I’ve been in Greece for 9 months. What shocked me was that toilet paper in most parts does not get flushed into the toilet it gets tossed into a trash can.

[Yaeli]

Having been to China and Japan, it's the weirdest contrast. They're both Asia is what I thought, until I went there. China is very chaotic, loud, people push into and out of elevators, no manners, no stopping cars for pedestrians, trash and cigarette filth on the streets, homeless people everywhere. In Japan everything is extremely neat and clean, no trash anywhere, public apology for a bus being 2 seconds late (not joking), everyone is super polite, very quiet almost sterile environment. Both have big cities with similar populations, but the people act totally different. Both are culture shocks compared to the US.

[pisto pesto pasta]

In Poland there is a brand called Biedronka that sells very nice bread for less than 1 złotego! ( 1 złoty is 0.24 USD ). You could get so many pieces for just 1$
isn’t that cool? very nice to buy stuff in places that don’t try to rip you off

[twistedgriffin]

I recently visited family in Croatia and the biggest thing that stuck out to me was how waiters and waitresses are expected to do their jobs. In the U.S., guests often stack dishes and make it overall more convenient for the waitstaff to clean up the table. When I tried to do this in Croatia, a waiter sternly said "Will you let me do my job?" It didn't click in my head what he was asking for around 3 minutes but when it did I felt a little dumb lol.

[Luzien]

I recently visited family in Croatia and the biggest thing that stuck out to me was how waiters and waitresses are expected to do their jobs. In the U.S., guests often stack dishes and make it overall more convenient for the waitstaff to clean up the table. When I tried to do this in Croatia, a waiter sternly said "Will you let me do my job?" It didn't click in my head what he was asking for around 3 minutes but when it did I felt a little dumb lol.

That is i think, because they have there own way to do things...and dont want all the dishes stacked the wrong way and toppling over, and maybe all the food left getting on everything, and so on..? And maybe they are proud of there work too and how they do it ...you maybe also would not like when someone trys to take over your work, and maybe do it wrong way, but also... maybe, some when understaffed may be happy when you bring it to them?

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For me,what i find a culture shock is, trash on the street-or in nature, terrible recycling, destroyed streets....bad healthcare and school education. Maybe ...

.

[pisto pesto pasta]

Something I don't get about Europe ( like the UK, France, Spain, Germany, etc ) ( well I technically live in Europe but I'm talking about the western Europe ) is how you can get mugged or quietly stolen from just the second you're not looking, especially if you're a foreigner visiting the capital
That legit never happened to me here. And whilst I'm not a foreigner and wouldn't know what it's like to be a foreigner here, we still can leave our stuff on the ground/on the floor, like bags full of money or wtv and come back later and noone's gonna even try to steal/take them. I've done that so many times like to take a picture or something.

Whilst Europeans unironically make guides on how to install 4958349543953 locks on their houses in order to simply not get robbed. This seems so unsettling and disturbing to me