18 Travelers Share Their Biggest Culture Shock

Author image for Eric Lund
Eric Lund
Aug 24, 2018 1:00 PM EDT

Sometimes the saying "when in Rome" is easier said than done. And some places are better, worse, or more similar than you'd expect

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  • 01
    Text - rmansd619 901 points . 6 hours ago Went to the Philippines. On the trip from the airport a group of homeless children took control of a bridge and demanded payment for people crossing it. People actually paid too
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  • 02
    Text - Anodracs 726 points 4 hours ago The sheer awesomeness of Japanese convince stores. My local 7-11 has sticky floors and doubtful looking packaged sandwiches. The 7-11s in Japan are clean, well-lit, have a great selection of lunch/dinner prepackaged meals, and not only do they have a cold drink section, they have a special heated unit for hot drinks. When I saw all the technological innovations in Japan, I felt like I came from a third world country.
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  • 03
    Text - catladysucc 382 points 4 hours ago In Thailand a little kid had never seen a white person as pale as i was and he put his little hand on my knee to see if it was real. Culture shock for both of us i guess.
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  • 04
    Text - aidanadriana 101 points 4 hours ago edited 2 hours ago Went to NYC in the summer. The whole place smelt like hot garbage. Probably because of the sun beating down on all the garbage laying in the streets all day
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  • 05
    Text - DrShlomo 509 points 5 hours ago I'm from one of the most unequal countries in the world, but going to India still blew my mind. Delhi is a heaving, throbbing city, people sleeping in literal dirt next to mansions. Perhaps the pilgrimage to the Taj Mahal was the most eye-opening. By far the most beautiful, perhaps most opulent, man-made structure I've seen on earth, but its mired in the most saddening poverty imaginable.
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  • 06
    Text - TheCreepyGuyinLife 320 points 6 hours ago Went to San Francisco. Was shocked to see the amount of homeless people there. Not to mention the amount of human shit on the ground. It's literally disgusting, like third world disgusting. You amercians need to fix that shit.
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  • 07
    Text - mongooseoflove 240 points 5 hours ago Malaysia as a woman from the USA. I got harassed for wearing shorts. I got rocks thrown at me. A gun pulled. Men wouldn't address me. The hotel we were at assumed I was a second wife to my married couple friends. In fact, I always had to convince them that I wanted my own room. I was never Ms. Mongooseoflove. I was always Mrs. AnyMaleFriendIWasWith
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  • 08
    Text - Reverse_Waterfall 446 points 5 hours ago I went to Paris and not one person was rude to me for not knowing French. Very disappointing.
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  • 09
    Text - Blown_Resistor 190 points 5 hours ago The mistreatment of dogs in Central America. It's heartbreaking to see these emaciated dogs wandering the streets and wondering if they're going to get blasted by some shitty driver.
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  • 10
    Text - katherkelly 188 points 4 hours ago Smarties are chocolate. I'm from the US and the first time I was in the UK, on the very first day, I bought a pack of Smarties thinking it was pure sugar to perk me up from the jetlag. I "drank" the box to get a quick mouthful and was suddenly hit by the taste of chocolate and was shocked. (Also a couple minutes later I found out that I was allergic to the dye they use in the coating-which I would've known if I bothered to read the box.) Anyway, Smarties
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  • 11
    Text - Eoiny 337 points 5 hours ago landed in Juba, South Sudan. There were anti-aircraft guns on the roof of the airport, child soldiers in the tiny arrivals hall. The airport gift shop was selling loose raw eggs and salt. There were no roads, no electricity, no bank system, no running water and no garbage collection - so the entire city smelled of burning garbage.
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  • 12
    Text - edited 46 minutes ago TheRealBikeMan 99 points 4 hours ago I went to The Netherlands as an LDS (Mormon) missionary. The first person I tried to talk to stopped me and said, "uh, I don't speak Dutch, and I'm gay, so Jesus won't work for me". And he walked away. My companion just laughed and said, "welcome to the Netherlands".
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  • 13
    Text - LadyNoir93 327 points 6 hours ago Everything is way too big in the US and way too small in Europe
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  • 14
    Text - TwoHeadedCactus 321 points 5 hours ago My cousin and I went to Denmark a few years back. Everyone there is good looking - they all had good fashion and sense of style. It was ridiculous! It got to a point where we played a game to find an "ugly"/dressed down person. Couldn't find anyone fo a solid 2 hours, and we were in the heart of downtown Copenhagen. It made me want to live there because everyone is beautiful, but also not want to live there because I'd feel pressured to appear my bes
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  • 15
    Text - yumyum-dimsum 98 points 2 hours ago Example of culture shock in reverse - I'm an American who has spent the past 2 years living in China. After my first trip back to the US (after a full year abroad) I was just really shocked by how much grass there was everywhere. Space is such a luxury in Beijing that it was startling to see how much is devoted to your average front/back yard. I was also shocked by enormously wide the roads in my suburban section of the city felt!
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  • 16
    Text - capix1 82 points 3 hours ago How much people drink beer in the Czech Republic. You cannot get a non alcoholic drink in a bar cheaper than a beer. And then I looked it up and low and behold, the Czech's have the highest beer consumption in the whole world And so i moved there...
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  • 17
    Text - CitizenTed 69 points 3 hours ago Japanese discipline. I was visiting the Hakone Outdoor Museum (a huge sculpture garden). At the end of the tour is a onsen foot bath where visitors can dip their feet in the nice hot water. Tourists of every stripe gathered around the foot bath and the attendant instructed us on the rules. The rules were to be followed to the letter: Remove shoes. Remove socks. Place socks inside shoes. Place shoes in designated area behind you, in basket provided. Pants c
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  • 18
    Text - TripleScoops 194 points 4 hours ago The air pollution in major Chinese cities is so bad that your eyes water the second you step out of the airport. You also undergo a sort of acclimation sickness within the first couple weeks. The other thing about China, is that it's such an old country, that you have ancient temples and monuments, some 1000s of years old, right next to hyper modern 8 story shopping centers.
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