What fun examples of cultural differences have you experienced?
When I was in high school I went to China through an education program. On the plane there I was seated next to an elderly Chinese woman on my left and a mother and daughter to my right.
While talking with the daughter and mother at some point the elderly woman became involved. She spoke cantonese and my mandarin was limited so the mother helped to translate.
The elderly woman took out paper and pen from her bag and began to have me write me characters. Some time after, she put her hands on my face and began to massage it in circular motions. It was strange but pleasant because clearly her intentions were good. I looked over to the man who was leading my fellow students, and got a thumbs up as he mouthed "just go with it".
I'd never experienced such caring from a complete stranger. It was a lovely introduction into their culture and genuine happiness to share it.
Close enough, as an introvert in an American culture, that sounds very fun to me.
Going to the US (as a person from Scandinavia) and being approached by random people on the street who just want to have a quick chat.
Or being from the US and visiting Scandinavia for work, sitting at a bar and not even the bartender will talk to you. It sure is a lonely place to travel alone.
If you're eating in a gastro-pub, bar-restaurant, or are sitting outside at a table on a terrasse, it's not uncommon in Germany that total strangers will ask if they can share your table if it's busy. Now this doesn't happen in most restaurants, but I haven't quite figured out the exact point where the place gets too "classy". I'm thinking benches vs individual seats when we're talking indoors perhaps, but I'd love to get the opinion of some Germans on this one.
This can be great fun, horribly awkward, or you just both pretend to sit really close to another table. The greatest encounter we had was a guy who was wolfing down a chicken, while wearing a hospital outfit under his coat. He hated the the diet his clinic had put him on for his health, and he "escaped" every once in a while to the pub to get some proper food.
When I was about 15-16 my friend invited me over to his for the weekend while his parents were visiting some work friends. Had the house to ourselves until sunday when they came back. But they brought their friends with them and thought that we should go out for a meal before I actually leave, you know, since everyone has a guest it's a special occasion.
I was a bit weirded out by it a bit, and even moreso when they introduced themselves. Idk what accent it was but they were clearly Americans. I think i actually heard an unironic and not sarcastic "we'll that's just dandy" from the wife. She was one of those people that are so kind that it gets to be a little obnoxious at times, and certainly virtue signally. But anyway, on with the story.
We drive into town and we start talking about what we're in the mood for. Nandos, pizzahut, the castle grill, etc. And we eventually park up at this patio restaurant and my friends parents start talking about their friend that used to work here and joked about namedropping them to get employee discount, but before the americans could ask if that was a joke we heard a "heyyy, she still works here" and she gets flagged over to give us a table
They were clearly incredibly buddybuddy bc i've never had food served that fast since, but she also kept saying things like "Don't worry, this one won't count towards the tip" and "sorry about the delay, ill knock another 1% off the tip for you". Pretty funny since we don't do the whole tipping thing in the uk, but I kinda forgot that there were americans at the table until both purse and wallet was out and they were trying to remember what did and didn't count towards the tip....
And I want to say that we said something as soon as we noticed, but instead we just looked at eachother extremely awkwardly until they realized something was wrong... Not sure if that was what you had in mind but we nearly died laughing as soon as we dropped them home
Was travelling for awhile with my wife, and we spent 3 months in Japan and then went to France.
As soon as we arrived in the neighbourhood we'd be spending our next few months in, we saw human excrement on the sidewalk. VERY different from the clean streets of Japan. Our minds were blown.
Having come from Japan, we were instinctually bowing at everyone. Our Airbnb host held up her hands and said, "You do not need to bow at me. We are equal."
One thing I feel to be deeply true despite its anecdotal nature, from my personal experience with different cultures, is that people are different and amazing. It's impossible and non-sensual to put people in boxes labelled by culture. Culture is the light that shines through living people in everybody's individuality.
I was pleasantly surprised by the ease of embracing in the French and other southern European cultures. I like friendly physical contact, but just seeing people hug each other softens my heart.
Another fun surprise was at lunch (yes, we had that), when an Italian acquaintance invited me to take food from their plate (yes, real lunch, on plates), because I was curious about all the foods "exotic" to me.
I'm not at all a touchy person, but that's really warming :)
I'm in Canada, and I once listened to my cousin from Hong Kong talk on and on about applying to American universities as a "minority" and how much more complicated the process could be. He was talking about for black people, and didn't once consider himself a minority.
This was a long time ago so I'm not sure if it's still the case but I remember seeing so many guys in Speedos when I went to Canada. I still haven't recovered. :P
Where in Canada? I've rarely seen people wearing Speedos compared to regular board shorts.
This was near Montreal. But it was over 10 years ago so it might have changed.
Darwin is another world. I actually lived in another more remote place, which had a mess of broken tribal cultures... But I used to fly in to Darwin every now and then, because that's how I'd get a months groceries that weren't half rotten in an un-airconditioned store.
Darwin has a couple sides to it.
There's the tradies who are always half drunk and hitting on the tourists, who tend to just go with it.
There's the old folks who only talk to you once they know you're local, but once they do, it's "Come have a whisky and chat for six hours straight".
There's the meth-addicts, who are absolutely everywhere, and incredibly violent. Avoid unless with a group, and even then they tend to be unpredictable.
There's the stoners who sit under every tree blasting out music. Some of them aren't half bad. Others... Well, the locals let them know they can't sing in tune pretty vocally.
I guess Darwin is a city of blunt people. Screw being polite. You call your friends 'cunt', and it's an earned badge of honour. (I mean, their international tourism slogan was 'C U in the NT'.)
You respect your elders, holding open doors, grabbing their groceries from them. But if they try and say no, you tell them your helping, and they can accept it.
Also, nobody in the city is dry. Not a city for an alcoholic to live in. Alcohol and airconditioning are everywhere. (Oh, they also have a crocodile enclosure on the main street, and Houdini the big-ass saltie lives up to his name.)