What is your biggest reverse culture shock when you visit your country ?
Posted by No-Jackfruit3211@reddit | expats | View on Reddit | 66 comments
For me it's that people are inconsiderate. They may be kind but not considerate.
Hopeful_Addition7834@reddit
Hungary:
The absolute lack of customer service and mental health culture, and the open expression of anger and criticism anywhere and everywhere.
DavidVegas83@reddit
When I visit the UK I am stunned by just how poor the country is.
Some_Evidence1814@reddit
How so?
DavidVegas83@reddit
How little people earn relative to the cost of living. Their lack of disposable income. The quality of the clothes, restaurants etc all reflect how poor people are.
I’ve been in the US for 13 years (I’m now a US citizen, I met my wife here, my kids are American etc) and when I visit the UK today, I feel like how I felt when I visited Greece in the mid 1990s - feeling like I’m visiting a much poorer place, it’s just obvious and all around you.
My mum, sister and nieces and nephews still live outside of Bristol in the suburban town I grew up in. I’m still in touch with my school friends and we done a trip to Vegas 2 years ago, 4 of us live in the UK still, I live in the US and 1 lives in Australia. Me and the Australian friend remarked on how shocked we were in the income and quality of life differences we have vs our UK friends.
Some_Evidence1814@reddit
I guess it is all a personal perspective of the quality of life you have and how much money you need. I am in the US and I make good money, mid 6 figures, (my cousin in London makes double what I make in the US just so you have a perspective that UK is not as bad as you think) but I can’t brag about “quality of life” in the US bc it is shit.
Everything you said about the UK is literally the same about the US. Maybe because you are in the upper mid-class or higher you don’t see it, but the cost of living in the US compared to the income is not any good and with Trump it gets even worse.
I don’t know why you compared restaurants bc food in the US is horrible.
Don’t get me wrong, US has many benefits but not quality of life for sure.
mdeeebeee-101@reddit
What benefit did it bring ? We lost redtape-free access to a massive customer base. It was an engineered lie built around 'take back our borders' and money getting pumped into NHS/public services.
The pound also took a dive against certain currencies.
UK is beyond broken and majority of people are tapped out every month on an ever growing overheads cost cycle. I have lived both as an expat 21 years and 5 years back in UK across covid.
Soulnomad1955@reddit
That's what you get for voting for BREXIT.
Top-Half7224@reddit
Lots of factors besides Brexit at play. Also, do you blame all Americans for Trump?
mazzimar7@reddit
OMG, please don't! That's currently my biggest fear.
Wide_Annual_3091@reddit
Same - I don’t think many (average) people in the UK get just how materially poor much of the public realm is outside London, or how much worse off their quality of life is versus average people in France, Spain, Netherlands etc.
Scrumptiepie@reddit
The UK is so poor because of the massive expense incurred by maintaining the bloated welfare state.
dinoscool3@reddit
I mean most of Europe also has a pretty robust welfare systems, that’s not the whole picture.
Top-Half7224@reddit
And getting much worse since 2020 :(
eml_raleigh@reddit
giant parking spaces in the USA.
NotABotStill@reddit
Toilets clog easily in Hong Kong so we use a low amount of TP per usage. I find myself tearing off the Sam e amount when I’m home.
Another is dishwashers- HK has very few so I have to remind myself to put them on there instead of by hand.
Soulnomad1955@reddit
Do you actually flush your TP? In the Philippines, we put it in the trash so the toilet doesn't clog. The bidet is much better, which most toilets in the malls have. If I go out, I take a small pack of wipes with me just in case.
NotABotStill@reddit
We do flush TP. I’ve heard about not flushing TP in other countries due to old pipes usually.
Fluffy_Beautiful2107@reddit
Hearing everyone speak my first language around me. Not being able to shit talk people openly
NewNameAgainUhg@reddit
Spain: every meal is so fucking late! Visiting with a toddler is a constant fight to keep a decent routine and failing miserably because grandparents can't understand a child shouldn't have dinner at 10pm
Accomplished_Win8937@reddit
Tipping
Recent-Manager-203@reddit
The "Othering" of anyone that is not like them. The world seems to be in a place where anyone does not look or sound like the larger community becomes the other - a threat. They've come to take our jobs, ruin our culture etc etc. Othering shows up in little off the cuff comments. I find this the most painful part of returning to any of my "home" countries (I am mixed race)
SaintRhodeLands@reddit
American saunas are a joke. Mfers roll in with their full gym fit, phone & air pods on blast....
Was the gym but I'm comparing to dutch gyms lol
PuzzleheadedBass8729@reddit
When I go back home to the UK I can’t get over the amount of choice in the supermarkets and other shops. Also that people have those fast Amazon deliveries . In New Zealand home delivery is v slow .
Widespread_Dictation@reddit
American living in Switzerland since 2017. My biggest reverse culture shock is how loud everything is in the US. 24/7 noise and thin walls. I have a difficult time sleeping when I visit my family or friends in the US. At home (Switzerland) after about 9 PM, everything is quiet.
0x18@reddit
USA -> Netherlands
When I last returned to Indiana, it was: ... holy fuck, nothing has changed, everybody is still poor as fuck, dumb as shit, angry over absolute nonsense, and incapable of attributing blame in a productive, healthy, or accurate way.
The factory that closed back in the 70s? If it wasn't for Obama that factory would have re-opened by now. It's only because of Obama that nobody can earn a living anymore. And if that factory was still open then McDonalds would have to pay way more to compete, so it's all Obama's fault that working at McDonalds is a shit job.
It's all those child-raping trans-types that are making the highway repairs cost so much. If only somebody had the courage to just murder them all then maybe we could pay slightly less in taxes for our never-ending highway construction that totally isn't just a funnel of state funds into the construction-business owning friends of the state legislators.
It's all Biden's fault that Joe McBobSmith got addicted to heroin and beat his kids. If it wasn't for the Laptop From Hell then his wife wouldn't have left him, and he got laid off by a company that Hunter Biden owns stock in so really it's all Biden's fault that he's unemployed, divorced, and can't talk to his children anymore.
Nothing has changed since I was a child in the early 90s, only the amount of abandoned and collapsing homes and the names on a few of the stores.
Wait, that's not fully true: now you can buy alcohol on a sunday!
Top-Half7224@reddit
I left the US 20 years ago, on the rare occasion I go back to visit I usually get called a "bitch" within the first 24 hours. Usually due to some slight like not moving out of the way for a man, or engaging in a conversation with a wierdo who starts asking me personal questions on public transport. Overall just a startling lack of filter and spacial awareness.
kejiangmin@reddit
Coming back to the USA: why is the grocery store way too cold. And the options. Why do we have to have so many options for everything? I sometimes get confused and option fatigue.
Alarming-Art1562@reddit
And so far away
nanacmm@reddit
For me it was the toilet paper aisle - why so many??
No-Jackfruit3211@reddit (OP)
I remember thinking : why are there so many choices for cereals ? It makes it hard to shop.
tenniseram@reddit
Cereal is the worst, followed by yoghurt. I live in the Netherlands and all I want for breakfast is some fruit, plain (“full fat”) Greek yogurt and muesli (no added sugar or fat, grains, dried fruit, nuts), things I could gather in a 7 minute stop at the grocery store a five minute walk from my house. This requires an hour commitment to drive to a store, spend 20 minutes in the cereal aisle to not even end up with what I want. 200 choices! And even if I did find muesli it would be $9-10 for a package I pay €2-3 for here. I sometimes take it with me now!
kejiangmin@reddit
Cereal and other grains were the worst Fat free Sugar free Reduced Sugar Family Size Limited Edition Multiple different brands and flavors Also “enriched with Protein” “Now 20% more” I saw one that stated “now made with real ingredients”.
Decision fatigue
j3pl@reddit
Finally some real ingredients.
Garglygook@reddit
Oh gawd your statement brought back a memory!
I had lived in Nederland for roughly 3 years. I moved back to the States for a bit. My first venture to grocery shop was in a "Super Walmart".
For the first time in my life, in the cereal aisle, I had an internal anxiety attack. I just left everything - the cart, right there and walked out. Just couldn't do it. Too.damn.much.
WeCantBothBeMe@reddit
The Costco frozen food section is like walking into a freezer
hezaa0706d@reddit
Yeah the options thing in the US gets me too
hunchuen@reddit
I was in Belize for 2 years straight during COVID and the first time I walked into a big US supermarket I had to leave I was so overwhelmed!
Garglygook@reddit
Same experience! (Different country though, but back to the States)
bunnibly@reddit
Almost all those brands are under the umbrella of like 5-6 megacorps now, giving you the illusion of choice.
The-American-Abroad@reddit
That no matter how much I enjoy living abroad, have no plans to move back to the US, dislike major parts of American culture, etc….
I still feel a twinge in my heart when I see all the “patriotic” stuff. I think fundamentally it’s kind of impossible be to emotionally, deeply patriotic about a country you move to as an adult.
storm455@reddit
Being an American when I lived in the Uk and learnt irony, sarcasm and more subtle / higher context humour. Going back to America trying to use the same wit literally made me look like a total weirdo. Same language such different cultures.
sparklingkrule@reddit
As an Australian who has done stents in the UK and the US it is not widely known how much of a language barrier we have with the Americans compared to the English
paradoxical-intent@reddit
lol welcome to my life as an Australian living in the US. I can only imagine what a weirdo they think I am with my Australian humour.
j3pl@reddit
Not to mention the abject horror at hearing a certain c-word.
govnyuuk@reddit
7 pound a pint
Early_Switch1222@reddit
greek living in the netherlands here. when i go back to greece its the pace of everything. after years of dutch efficiency where everything runs on time and you schedule coffee with friends two weeks in advance, going back to athens where nothing starts when it says it will and people just... show up at your house unannounced? its alot.
also the volume. i didnt realize how quiet the netherlands is until i went back and my entire family was talking over each other at dinner and i caught myself thinking "why is everyone shouting." they werent shouting. thats just how greeks talk. i used to be like that too.
the weirdest one is food portions. dutch portions are reasonable, maybe even small. greek grandma portions are designed to feed a small army. i used to eat like that normally and now i physically cannot finish a plate at a family dinner without everyone looking at me like im sick.
CompanionCone@reddit
That everything closes so early.
elijha@reddit
Being able to do literally anything on Sunday
Economy_Fan_8520@reddit
Early closing times ….
Living in middle east to then being in UK you forget how shops and service related businesses all close much earlier
Tango_D@reddit
USA - The sheer amount of driving to do literally anything.
falseinsight@reddit
For me it's the absolutely ENORMOUS vehicles. Although coming from the UK I do appreciate the correspondingly wide parking spaces.
gregd303@reddit
The state of public toilets , weed smell everywhere, and how loud people are (and announcements) on public transport - UK
NegotiationStatus727@reddit
Going back to the US after living in Germany there are a lot of things Americans don't have mature conversations about politics. Americans either LOVE or LOATHE their jobs. Everything is understaffed. Most food is sold for a family of 4. You have to drive everywhere.
mdeeebeee-101@reddit
Getting attitude of art grad baristas.
eatyourdamndinner@reddit
That I have no clue where to get things. Stupid things.
For example, I need q-tips. In Korea, I go to Daiso. In Texas, I am suddenly stupid and have to think about where one buys them.
Naprisun@reddit
HEB is always the answer.
But seriously I have the reverse. After 6 years here I still can spend half the day looking for one type of screw or a paint roller. I miss being able to swing by Home Depot and grabbing everything I need for a project. It does make life a little boring though.
hezaa0706d@reddit
So many large people. Everyone looks so diverse (variety of hair color and skin color). Rude customer service. Over casual. Tipping. - American expat 21 years in Japan
BRITGRRRRL@reddit
When I go back to England I’m shocked by the amount of people that don’t look like me or anyone I grew up with.
minutestothebeach@reddit
The weed and shroom shops on every street corner and separately the fentanyl/crack/meth (?) addicts in the streets. I didn’t go home since the year before Covid and a couple of years later and it was so much worse than I remembered. It is so very sad.
joeyguse@reddit
I go between Vietnam and New Zealand a lot. The prices are literally ten times different for beer, food, clothes, transportation, etc. On the other hand, New Zealand is very slow and calm, while Vietnam is crazy and chaotic.
The contrast suits me well, although I never buy anything in New Zealand now except the absolute essentials.
hunchuen@reddit
Customers treating service employees badly. Or just being gruff. In Belize, you have a conversation with the person making your coffee or getting your gas. In the US it’s, “Gimme a latte” as they look at their phone. No smile, no hello.
thebitsyitsyspider@reddit
The relaxed clothing in America lol
I feel like in the Netherlands everyone is dressed business casual consistently. Even walking their dogs early on a Sunday haha
Every time I visit home I’m reminded of how refreshing to be able to roll up to a grocery store chill af without any stares
fractalmom@reddit
The lack of personal space especially in queues. I don’t want to go in public, cause I am now used to the American’s unit of personal space.
keithd3333@reddit
Trains as well
Dangerous_Spinach709@reddit
People still wear red hats and shit that says MAGA. I thought those clowns made it great the first time around.
JacobAldridge@reddit
Navigation - my memory always seems to be one block away from reality. So I’ll walk to the wrong corner, or drive down the wrong road looking for somewhere because it’s actually 1Km to the left.
I used to drive a lot for work, so it’s weird to be confused in a city I once knew blindfolded.