Somebody asked people from the UK what aspect of another country’s culture has shocked them – 23 (mainly) pleasant surprises
13.
‘The travel in the US vs here. It’s apparently normal (according to several friends) to drive about five hours in a day for a normal event or shopping and it’s not even counted as a day trip. Whereas here, one hour is a day trip.’
–This_Limit_6945
14.
‘France – you say hello to pretty much everyone and to not do so is extremely rude. As in, you enter a shop, you say hello to the staff immediately. In the office, I used to individually say hello and shake everyone’s hands (not sure that is still true post-Covid).
The bigger shock is coming back to the UK and realising most people just ignore you and don’t even look up from their desks.’
–lohikaarme88
15.
‘I got back from Egypt at the weekend. They don’t have any (at least not that I saw) pedestrian crossings. You literally just walk out into traffic and trust your instincts.’
–godfatheroffilth
16.
‘Southeast Asia and East Asia more generally: you treat everyone and everything around you with respect, humility and grace. If you have a cold, you wear a face mask because the thought pattern is that ‘I do not want people around me to contract what I have’. It’s community oriented always.
The general rule is to remove shoes in places of worship, to cover up etc. regardless of your race or religion because there’s just so much respect for each other. Likewise, you wouldn’t vandalise public transport or parks because it’s made for the community so why would you ruin it. It’s you and us first before I.’
–CedarClove
17.
‘German daytime TV having full, graphic depictions of sex in shows. I was waiting in a bakery in Dusseldorf years back and they had a TV mounted up high. A drama type program was on and the male character just goes completely hogwild on the behind of another female character. Apparently it’s completely normal for that to be on shows in daytime hours.’
–IndividualCurious322
18.
‘There’s loads of mad shit about going to the States, but the one I simply can’t get my head around is the fact that anyone can see in to toilet cubicles. Sitting on the loo and making eye contact with someone walking past is quite the experience.’
–JonnyBhoy
19.
‘When my sister visited Zambia to meet her relatives who live in a mud hut village they greeted her by spitting in her ears… sign of respect apparently.’
–AneeMel
20.
‘A bit of a daft one that says more about me than the country in question – in Spain, there’s a high proportion of women working on bin lorries. When I saw this, I realised there was no reason why this shouldn’t be the case in the UK too – solid job that anyone can do.’
–yearsofpractice
21.
‘Supermarkets in Latvia that require you to take a basket as you enter, even if you’re only buying one thing. We didn’t know and we got chased around the store until we each took one.’
–RevolvingGoose
22.
‘Visiting an ‘open carry’ state in America is very disconcerting the first time you see somebody just nonchalantly handling a gun out on the open.’
–Crafty_Letter_1719
23.
‘In Central America the whole family will go out to eat in a restaurant (or at someone’s house) every Sunday. There could be 20/30 people there, everyone will eat, have a drink, there’ll be some sort of sporting event on TV, etc, etc. It’s the sort of community you only get here at Christmas.’
–Specialist_Act_9394
Source r/AskUK Image Screenshot