What is the biggest culture shock you have ever faced?

Anonymous

7y

This question is asking for a single most shocking cultural difference. Boy this is so hard - how do you choose?!

1. Bathrooms in China - There are no doors. They don’t account for situations where you might be wearing a one-piece-suit and have to undress totally to take a dump. In some public schools, you go to squat at a spot along a long drain and do your business (shit, pee) while talking to your friend next in queue. Occasionally you get a stream of water from the top that washes everyone’s feces down. I could only do my business when the toilet was completely empty.
2. Filial Piety does not really exist in US - An American told me he learnt a new word from me : ‘filial’. I was confused why is such a common word foreign to an American and realized that the concept of Filial Piety is based on confucianism and isn’t universal. In Asia, one of the worst thing one can be accused or shamed for is being unfilial; not being fulfilling your responsibilities as a son/daughter to your aging parents’ needs. In the US, this concept does not exist and people don’t agree with the concept that children are 100% responsible for their parents’ retirement life, finances or all needs.
3. Working attitude of people in Spain - They do not give a rat’s ass about their job. I grew up in Singapore and am used to a system of efficiency and responsibility. People have common sense and care about their job. Most of the people I’ve encountered in Spain do not give a single f**k about their job apart from turning up. I never thought people could be this unbelievably lazy. Examples:
1. Football match changed dates but the company/management did not deem necessary to at least send an email to notify everyone
2. Apartment rental - did not state apartment amenities correctly. I signed for a place with AC but they said onsite there’s no AC, then later checked there was. People would say they would do a thing, but never fulfilled it. I would pay a deposit in cash and said I needed the money back to travel Europe 6 times but they’d still insist on paying on bank transfer (repeat same statement 5 times) and then doing it late when I had reminded 6 times the importance of it. And many more …
3. I would go shopping, ask for a size/color multiple times, they would say there isn’t one, and I’d find it myself multiple times. And this happened at the high end clothing stores!
4. India and China - people find their life partner with a resume of where they went to school, how much money they make and which industry they are in. In India, also which caste they are part of. You find your life partner with an advertisement. (And there are way many more things shocking about India)
5. USA - There are a million things that is a huge shock
1. How unbelievably messed up the healthcare system is - I know it’s bad but didn’t understand how bad it was until I lived here. At the insane premium price they pay, public healthcare is the equivalent of what I pay for private healthcare in Singapore. What is insurance for really??? Seeing a doctor without healthcare is so ridiculous you’d pay 1000 at the A&E to clean your ear wax, or have 3 visits to diagnose your swollen lymph nodes as cancer (& close to 500$ later). (true stories). 100$ is what I pay in Singapore to see a private specialist at a private medical center in Singapore for an orthodontics cosmetic surgery consultation. In the US, you have to book an appointment to see a doctor days in advance. In Singapore, I see a doctor nearest to me, immediately when I want to see it. And most importantly, Singapore doctors are way better than the ones I’ve encountered in the US.
2. That some Americans think that America is one of the greatest country in the world if not THE greatest. Without knowing they get significantly lesser for what they pay in terms of tax, how ridiculous it is people spend decades paying off a student tuition loan, how insane healthcare access is, how disastrous the public transportation can be it’s half a century behind places like South Korea.

I guess this can really go on and on about so many countries but I’ll stop for now :)