# Culture Shock



## Konfyouzd (Apr 25, 2014)

Have you experienced it? 

I happen to work at the State Department and my assumption was that a lot of these folks would be used to different cultures and behave accordingly. What I've found is that typically a lot of them are very "knowledgeable" about foreign cultures in the book learning sense.

However, they still have a very ethnocentric viewpoint on their understanding of said cultures and seem even more out of touch with our own domestic cultures.

Examples...

One time I was looking for a scanner in the office. The admin assistant here is also black and she took me to a different media center in the office that I didn't even know we had. Awesome.

As she's showing me how to use this particular scanner, an old man comes around the corner and says... "Oh boy! Are they serving Koolaid at this media center?"

I wasn't quite sure *what* he meant by that but it didn't sound good. I let that slide.

Another time we were at some kind of work social thing. Someone used the word "mojo" and suddenly an old guy turns and looks at me: "Hey Konfyouzd, where's that word from? Is that a Jamaican word?"

I have dreads. I'm not Jamaican.

This other time I was at lunch with my boss--the VP of our division at the time--her boss and a few guys on my team. We were talking about different job sites we had. One of them happened to be located relatively close to a bad part of town. 

I told my boss, "Whatever you do, please don't put me there."

Her boss replies, "But you're black!" 

Prior to that, I went to a college that boasted diversity. When I arrived, we looked at the stats. The school was:

-86% white
-5% black
-9% other

OTHER... 

This wasn't really an issue for me. I grew up in an area that was highly mixed. So *more* white people wasn't really going to be an issue. What I hadn't counted on was the fact that a lot of the people that went there had either never met a black person before and a lot of the ones that had had never met an intelligent one before. 

My first night of college a girl knocks on my door at 3AM. For some reason I was dumb enough to get out of my bed and answer it. When she sees me she says, "Oh I'm sorry! Do you have practice in the morning?"

No, bitch. I have physics in the goddamn morning.

Later that year I went to the office of some nonesense with a friend to register for a class or something. Somewhere along the way we made the joke: "... well you know what they say about assuming!"

No sooner than I make this joke, the lady says... "Well can I *assume* you two are on the football team?" 

NO... I'm here for academics. 

*awkward silence*

Also, I lost track of how many times I was asked: "Oh! Are you the first one in your family to go to college?"

Yea... That's why my dad is paying for it out of pocket. 

So for me culture shock has never really been anything where I step into a situation and seem unsure. It always seems that people to whom I've already assimiliated to some degree always behave around me as though I came from some tiny African village. 

What are you experiences with culture shock?


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## UnderTheSign (Apr 25, 2014)

And people claim racism is not an issue anymore just because the KKK ain't burning crosses on every corner of the street


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## Mexi (Apr 25, 2014)

Indeed, overt racism has been replaced with micro aggressions and willfully ignorant statements that only serve to reinforce outdated, negative stereotypes concerning race.

I've often heard "do you speak mexican?", "where are you REALLY from?" and the classic "what *are* you, really?"

I try not to be too critical of peoples' ignorance these days on a personal-basis but sometimes you hear some of the dumbest shit and think "REALLY DUDE" and wonder why and how people can still be so painfully oblivious to their clearly racist/ignorant views on race. It doesn't help that our popular culture tends to only reinforce stereotypes either so it's an uphill battle for those with any modicum of human decency.


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 25, 2014)

I've been asked if I speak Cuban... 

I forgot that one.


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## Phantom (Apr 25, 2014)

Yeah I can agree that people are ignorant, but its not all people. Personally, I don't see what the big deal is with different skin color, and i really don't get the "racist" thing. Unless we've been invaded by aliens and I'm completely oblivious to it, I'm pretty sure we're all human... the only real race. My culture shock story is actually quite... backward?... I'm, mostly, hispanic and I was born in a small town near Dallas, Tx. I grew up with people of all different shapes, sizes, colors, religions, you name it. My family decided to move to South Texas to be closer to family, both of my parents were born in Mexico. I didn't think that much of it, we had visited many times before and other than it was always stupid hot and sucked because there was nothing there... I guess I should just say I was not happy with the decision. Anyway, we moved and I realized that the area was almost entirely hispanic. I also realized that I did not look like a "typical" hispanic, I was tall, white complected, blue eyed, had a "country" accent. Everyone would call me white, or some version of that. They would talk crap about me in spanish, which I almost completely understood. I say almost completely, because their version of Spanish is all kinds of f*cked up, it's Spanglish really, and there were terms that were used that I didn't get becuase they weren't real words. So all the years of awkwardness with people of my own "ethnic background" really made me hate where we lived. In the end, it's peoples ignorance that fuels the racist tensions that shouldn't even exist. I just don't pay attention anymore, it was draining my IQ.


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## Phantom (Apr 25, 2014)

Konfyouzd said:


> I've been asked if I speak Cuban...
> 
> I forgot that one.



 that makes me think of this.

http://http://youtu.be/3xo3f93gQXs


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 25, 2014)

Hmm... Phantom, that's interesting. Makes me think of a few other things which are almsot exactly the opposite of what you say, but in some ways exactly the same.

There's this strange... "We gotta stick together" thing with some black people that I honestly don't understand. I never quite got why having a similar complexion meant I had to look out for *you* specifically. In most cases, this comes from someone less fortunate trying to ride the proverbial coat tails of someone that they feel looks like them and is in a better position in one way or another.

Any expressed lack of interest results in you being accused of being sympathetic to some other race as if it needs to be taken to that extent. 

I've also found that latinos are quite rude to me until I speak to them in Spanish at which poin it's obvious they can't talk shit about me--at least not when I'm around. This leads me to believe that a lot of people (not all) are only friendly because they fear the consequences of not doing so.


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## Phantom (Apr 25, 2014)

Konfyouzd said:


> There's this strange... "We gotta stick together" thing with some black people that I honestly don't understand.



Yeah dude I totally agree, but I think it exists among all the different "races", which in turn leads to the racist comments, acts, judgements and whatnot. It's stupid to say the least.


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## skeels (Apr 25, 2014)

"Culture" is such an interesting word. It has so many meanings. 

Most white people say "cultural" when they mean "not white folks". 

Unfortunately the culture of ignorance knows no boundaries. 

Being a white dude myself, I run into a lot of white folk making assumptions about me based on the fact that I am a white dude. It can be funny- kind of like I'm in some sort of disguise. It shows me that a lot of people who I meet are truly culturally challenged. Not knowing anything about my life, my family, my upbringing or my attitudes, people can say a lot of stupid things that make them look pretty stupid. 

But as my example, I have never forgotten being at a party where I didn't know anyone except my chaperone- my oldest buddy, whose dad was an orthodox Jew and mom Ojibwe. Come to think of it, I was the only white dude there- a long haired rock freak at first glance I imagine. But it was a pretty intellectual group as my friend was successfully enjoying his tenth year at college. 

I found myself entertaining a group around the tapper- read: doobage- and one guy kept trying to pigeon hole me, saying stereotypes were inescapable. 

"Everybody has someone they don't like."

"Yeah, you're right, I guess. I don't like people telling me what I think when they don't know anything about me."

Well that's it. That's my punchline. 





Oh wait! The 9% Other... those are Eskimos, right?


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## crg123 (Apr 25, 2014)

Konfyouzd said:


> Someone used the word "mojo" and suddenly an old guy turns and looks at me: "Hey Konfyouzd, where's that word from? Is that a Jamaican word?"
> 
> I have dreads. I'm not Jamaican.



Lol crazy old white people. My mom asked what kind of oriental my chinese girlfriend was when we started dating. She's from a different time I guess and uses that terminology. She's not racist (hating other races, she does say stupid shit all the time.) in the slightest. Btw My response to her was: Colorful and handstitched. (get it? because the word oriental is correctly used when describing objects like rugs.... not people lol)

Some old white are aggravating though and love to generalize and make ridiculous comments. It makes me annoyed.


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## pink freud (Apr 25, 2014)

Any traditional American vacation country. Most Americans aren't ready to see what those countries are like outside of the well-funded resorts.


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## Grand Moff Tim (Apr 25, 2014)

Every. F_u_cking. Day.


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 25, 2014)

pink freud said:


> Any traditional American vacation country. Most Americans aren't ready to see what those countries are like outside of the well-funded resorts.



Oh yea we know all about that. We're "from the Bahamas" meaning someone before us immigrated here from there. So my dad thought he was all cool when we went there and we went off the trail a bit from what most tourists stick to...

Yea... Totally had everything jacked out of our car. 

But we look so much like them... Why they no wanna stick together?


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## Grand Moff Tim (Apr 25, 2014)

On the subject of culture shock and/or race relations, here's a short conversational exchange I had with a coworker the first year I was here in Korea:

Him: "I heard all blacks have lice."
Me: "What?!?"
Him: "Is it okay if I call them negroes?"
Me: "What?!?"


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## thrsher (Apr 25, 2014)

my experience has been more or less the same for a few years now, considering im covered in tattoos and the long hair, people love to past judgement. one recent incident that comes to mind was after me and my girlfriend bought our house,( we are in our late 20s) we went to buy a dog. the person at the poind wasasking all kinds of questions about our living situation, do you live in an apartment? no we are in a house. oh, well do you have access to the back yard? yes, its our house. oh, do you rent the house? no, we own the house. oh, you OWN a house? yes, i work very hard and we pay a mortgage just like everyone else.


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 25, 2014)

We can't get lice so I'm told. 

Not the hair kind anyway.


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## Grand Moff Tim (Apr 25, 2014)

Also, a Korean English teacher I work with was yelling at some students in Korean one day, and when I asked her what that was all about, she said "They keep saying [Korean equivalent of the N-word] whenever the black student was on." We were watching dialogue videos featuring western kids, including an African-American boy. I'm the first _white_ person most of my students have ever seen in real life, black people might as well be from Mars.


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## Taylor (Apr 25, 2014)

Grand Moff Tim said:


> On the subject of culture shock and/or race relations, here's a short conversational exchange I had with a coworker the first year I was here in Korea:
> 
> Him: "I heard all blacks have lice."
> Me: "What?!?"
> ...



wat?


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## perttime (Apr 25, 2014)

Culture shock?
When I arrived in Croatia in late 1990s, well after the fighting was done, I had lodgings in a small village outside Vukovar, for the first night. Destroyed (fully or semi) buildings and bullet holes were a common sight. The daughter of the landlord could speak English OK, and I really appreciated one thing that she told me: "Tomorrow is Saint George's Day. People often celebrate it by shooting in the air. Don't worry: it is normal."

The landlady could cook well.


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## skeels (Apr 25, 2014)

I'm sorry. I couldn't help myself. I'm. .. I'm dying here....


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 25, 2014)

thrsher said:


> my experience has been more or less the same for a few years now, considering im covered in tattoos and the long hair, people love to past judgement. one recent incident that comes to mind was after me and my girlfriend bought our house,( we are in our late 20s) we went to buy a dog. the person at the poind wasasking all kinds of questions about our living situation, do you live in an apartment? no we are in a house. oh, well do you have access to the back yard? yes, its our house. oh, do you rent the house? no, we own the house. oh, you OWN a house? yes, i work very hard and we pay a mortgage just like everyone else.



I bought mine around 26. 

It blew minds that I was even doing it. Now when ppl come over to sell shit I get asked when the homeowner will be back. I live alone.

This one I use to my advantage though for obvious reasons. Unless I want what they're selling.


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## skeels (Apr 25, 2014)

Grand Moff Tim said:


> ...., black people might as well be from Mars.



Forgot this to set up my joke. 

Man.


Somebody just freaking shoot me today.


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 25, 2014)

*looks at current location*

Well played Tim...


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## JoshuaVonFlash (Apr 25, 2014)

Grand Moff Tim said:


> On the subject of culture shock and/or race relations, here's a short conversational exchange I had with a coworker the first year I was here in Korea:
> 
> Him: "I heard all blacks have lice."
> Me: "What?!?"
> ...


IDK whether to laugh or sit here and boggle my mind as to where your coworker got that from.


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 25, 2014)

Having never met a black person.

I met a girl in college that I'll never forget. Her name was Betsy. I was the FIRST black person she'd ever met. When I asked where she was from she didn't give me a city name. She gave me a COUNTY name. I dunno how it is in other states but in VA that means you live out in the sticks.

She seemed TERRIFIED of me and my posse of 2 other black ppl I managed to find.


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## Yo_Wattup (Apr 25, 2014)

TIL konfyouzd is black.


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## Grand Moff Tim (Apr 25, 2014)

You become an ambassador for your race/nationality in situations like that sometimes, too. I don't like coffee, so the janitor at the first school I worked at here assumed that meant ALL whites/Americans didn't like coffee, because I was the only one he knew.


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## crg123 (Apr 25, 2014)

I went to a school in the city where the population was probably about 10% white kids and 35% black and most of the rest was spanish. 

One of my best friend's in High School was this huge black guy who's name was Riddick (No I'm not making that up, he really had a badass name). Anyway Riddick and I were on the swim team together, he was a diver, but not the skinny kind you normally see, he was all muscle. You need to know the fact that he is absolutely jacked for the next part. Like seriously like Terry Crews big.

He saw me in the mall while I was waiting for my suburban friend Chris to get out of the bathroom and he asks who I was with, and I explain it's mine friend who lives out in the burbs (I've told him about him before). Chris is was from a place where there was probably like one non white kid in his school. He was always so nervous when we'd walk around the city at night, and every time he saw a person with a darker complexion with loose fitting clothes he'd get really worried and I'd laugh at him. 

Riddick gets a great idea to mess with Chris and walks away. So after Chris gets out of the bathroom we walk for a minute or so and Riddick comes jumps in front of us and goes "GIVE ME YO ....IN MONEY WHITE BOYS!" holding his hands in a finger gun shape to the side (obviously not a weapon at all) with a crazed look on his face that immediately goes to a huge smile. Chris shits him self with pure fear and I'm just dying laughing; he had no idea what was going on. Chris starts running away. Riddick and I are left laughing together. I mean I would have been terrified too if someone said that to me but the fact he was kind of scared of non-white people (for no reason I might add) made it funny/rewarding. FYI he wasn't a good friend more of an acquaintance. 

TL;DR Its funny scaring white people who are scared of different cultures.

This thread reminded me of Riddicks prank, so I thought I'd share.


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## ferret (Apr 25, 2014)

Konfyouzd said:


> Someone used the word "mojo" and suddenly an old guy turns and looks at me: "Hey Konfyouzd, where's that word from? Is that a Jamaican word?"



I don't mean to distract, but I almost snorted my drink laughing at the idea of an old man saying, literally, "Hey Konfyouzd"

I've visited some gaming buddies before, guys I played games with online for DECADES, and we'd use gaming handles even in real life, and it's always been funny to us.

...... unless your name really is konfyouzd and I just proved some weird point about this whole thread.

Perhaps more thread relevant, "What kind of Asian are you?":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWynJkN5HbQ


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 25, 2014)

EDIT: Nahh... That's not my real name. I just threw the handle in there to protect the innocent...


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## benduncan (Apr 25, 2014)

I grew up a white in the suburbs, but I went to and ALC in the inner city. Even though I was pretty culturally isolated before the ALC, someone being different from me has never really been a major issue. I don't know if that was because I was truly open minded, or if I was just naive. I had no trouble making friends(made a lot more than I did at the previous private school)but a lot of people there just hated suburban kids. It was like, they're minds couldn't comprehend the fact that I was "cool" and listened to good music. While talking to a kid about Slayer, when he found out where I was from, he asked "how the .... did you get into them all the way out there?"(I lived 25min outside of downtown), lol. I had similar convos involving NWA, maybe that one makes a _little_ bit more sense(is Slayer a city thing?), but it's still funny. A lot of the time, I would hear things like "...stupid ....ing suburban girl...." I would say "um....hello, I'm right here", "oh, no, you're the exception Ben" thanks, lol. This wasn't race related, the school had an even number of blacks/whites, with some "other" mixed in. And it never really got to me or anything, all of these people were my friends and I knew how they felt about me.

Don't get me wrong, this is literally the only time in my life that I'm aware of, that being a white male from the suburbs, aged 18-49 has burdened me.

On the other side of the spectrum, and since you mentioned dreds(I had them at the time). I was dating a suburban girl around that time, her mom said to her, after meeting me for the first time, "he has dreds, that means he's Rastafarian, you know they have to smoke weed for their religion" and was all worried, lol. I wasn't Rastafarian and I didn't smoke weed.


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 25, 2014)

Rastas also don't *have* to smoke weed either. It's an optional sacrament and it's treated with far more respect in that culture than it is in American culture.


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## benduncan (Apr 25, 2014)

Yeah  my girlfriend and I knew that...

Actually, I don't remember if she did, lol


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## Cabinet (Apr 25, 2014)

Lol I didn't even know you were black 

Spent most of my childhood moving around, mainly living overseas in the former Soviet Union. I haven't noticed much for culture shock, except Americans think that just because I lived in Romania that must mean I am Romanian.
I'm actually looking into paid internships with DoD and USAID, how fitting


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## Alex Kenivel (Apr 25, 2014)

Ima mix of a few different races, but all people see is white. I grew up in Richmond, California. For those of you who have no idea about Richmond (probably a lot of you), it was the murder capital when I was in high school, and I was usually the only white boy. In elementary school I was made fun of for being white , was called kkk a LOT and had no idea what it meant. When i was about 13 my parents shipped me off to a summer camp FULL of nothing but white folk. I couldn't make any friends, a complete shock to me . Now I live in the suburbs a few miles away from my home town. What I can't understand is how privileged white kids want so bad to be ghetto and all I wanted to do is escape


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 25, 2014)

TV glamorizes the "thug life" but notice even rappers seem to prefer living in gated communities.


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## vilk (Apr 25, 2014)

I don't like how in our modern age of PC policing ignorance is treated as malintent or racism. In my book, racism means you hate someone because of his skin color. Saying oriental instead of Asian doesn't make you a racist (oriens is the Latin word for east so I'm not sure who decided that it's offensive anyway), it just means you forgot to follow some arbitrarily decided word usage rule. Making assumptions doesn't make you racist, and sometimes even stereotypes are founded in reality. 

If you like being offended then there's plenty of things to choose from, but I just don't get why there's a campaign to demonize people who make assumptions.

As a white person living and working in Japan, I have assumptions made about me every day. He can't speak, he can't read, he's a tourist, he needs different eating utensils, he can't or won't follow the rules. Does that mean Japanese people are racist? No. It means they're ignorant--but only in my case specifically! Because all those assumptions are true about foreigners more often than not. Someone with a contemporary American mindset would be just dying to cast themselves the victim of racism and complain about the assumptions made about them, but I understand that most people just don't know me, so instead of acting like there's something wrong with them I'll just do my best to show them who I am, and then maybe that will inform their future assumptions when they meet a foreigner.

I think racism does exist and it is a problem. When you hate someone because of the skin he was born in that is wrong. Japanese landlords who refuse to rent to non-Japanese are assholes no ifs ands or buts. But most of the stuff people are saying in this thread isn't really racism. Dudeman running away from a black guy doesn't make him a bad person, it just makes him a chicken. Probably an ignorant one. And is being ignorant his fault? I don't think most people are purposely trying to be ignorant, especially when it comes to race, so I try to give them the benefit of the doubt.


On topic: toilets that you don't sit on was some culture shock for me. And eating raw eggs. Raw eggs on everything.


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## JoshuaVonFlash (Apr 25, 2014)

vilk said:


> But most of the stuff people are saying in this thread isn't really racism.


Who said this thread was about racism? It's about people's experiences with others who have ignorant misconceptions about different cultures and ethnicities.


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## vilk (Apr 25, 2014)

JoshuaVonFlash said:


> Who said this thread was about racism? It's about people's experiences with others who have ignorant misconceptions about different cultures and ethnicities.



Well, aside from the first two replies? My point is still relevant. I'm glad you get it, but honestly I think too many people actually believe that ignorant misconceptions about different cultures and ethnicities is full blown damnable racism and embrace the idea that they should be personally offended by it.


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## Phantom (Apr 25, 2014)

vilk said:


> On topic: toilets that you don't sit on was some culture shock for me.


You don't sit on the toilet in Japan?... Lol weird


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## JoshuaVonFlash (Apr 25, 2014)

vilk said:


> Well, aside from the first two replies.


Konfyouzd's, GMT's, Skeels's, thrsher's, perttimes's, and a few other's posts are about culture shock sure there are a few posts in this thread that missed the point but most everyone here has made a post adhering to Konfyouzd's OP. I do agree with you on people mistaking others ignorance for full blown racial hatred that stuff seriously needs to stop.


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## ThePhilosopher (Apr 25, 2014)

When my family moved back to the US from Germany ~1992 (I was going into 4th grade) I was quite unable to adapt to being in the US until my early 20s; sure I knew English, but I retained far more from my time in Europe than my time in the US in my wee ages. I still have idiosyncrasies that are definitely Western European vs. American (date writing for instance, I prefer ddmmyyyy).

I didn't understand American music, dress or teen culture in general - as we just got 80s trends in Western Germany around this time. I moved back thinking the 80s were still in and holy fvck was I wrong. I was always a bit odd and being smarter than average didn't help much.

I studied Continental Philosophy in Uni for my first degree (as opposed to the analytics favored by English and American philosophers).


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## bcolville (Apr 26, 2014)

I'm not disagreeing with anyones stories or opinions, but most of this stuff is not culture shock. It's just racism/discrimination. Two completely different things.

An example of culture shock is a western business man being sent to China for some negotiations. He will be "shocked" when he realizes that talking business is inappropriate without having a personal relationship first in China.

Edit: ThePhilosopher ^ has an excellent example of culture shock


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## Nour Ayasso (Apr 26, 2014)

I get called a raghead on a daily basis


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## Hollowway (Apr 26, 2014)

This is an awesome idea for a thread!

I honestly had some culture shock when I started going online on sites like this, because there are no accents in writing, so you can't tell where people are from. It's weird to be able to talk with someone online for months and not even realize they are from a different country and speak a different primary language. I honestly think that if they were to make going on a forum like this mandatory for xenophobes it would blow their minds. Culture and differences just seems to wash away when online. 

And this isn't really culture shock, but it irritates me when I'm hanging out with white Americans (I'm one) who don't know me well, and they assume I share their values, and just start talking about ridiculous crap. I remember being at lunch with this guy a couple of years ago, and out of nowhere he starts in about how, "these Mexicans are just ruining the country because they're so lazy," etc. I must have looked like a deer in the headlights because I could NOT believe he just said that, in a conversational voice, right in the middle of a busy restaurant. I had to tell him how all kinds of wrong he was, and try not to lose the business contact.

I will also say that California is great for the multicultural experience. I grew up in the Midwest, and ever since I've been here I've learned so much about other cultures. And I'm totally into that kind of thing. Like, just this week I was talking with a Sikh friend of mine and she was giving me a history of how the Sikhs wanted to rid themselves of the caste system and that's why they adopted the same middle names, etc. Pretty cool history I found out about. And not to brag about California, but I do feel like this state, and perhaps other areas like NYC, etc, are providing a template for the possibility of a more tolerant world one day. I LOVE people having different cultures, and my fear is that we all become one "world culture." I like the differences between different people. It just sucks that people sometimes use it in ways that turn into racism.


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## perttime (Apr 26, 2014)

My most obviously multi-cultural experience was my "Balkans Tour": government temp jobs in Peace Keeping, etc. Leaving out the locals who were always decent people towards me ... I worked in pretty multinational organizations that mainly consisted of career military people from all over the world. I could see that where they came from (nationality and position) had made them different in some ways - but mostly they were just different persons. 

The Ghanaian guy was always smart and serious, Two of the three Brazilians always had a joke and the girls liked them. The little Indonesian guy was great fun to be with. The Pakistani guy was a little reserved and you could feel that he was a sort of an aristocrat in his real life. He took me to a Pakistani doctor when I had bronchitis. The Russian guy was a "daddy" figure to everybody. The Ukranian guy was a cranky kid. The Swede Team Leader always wanted to discuss everything until there was agreement. The Irish guy ... Norwegian ... Nigerian ... Lebanese ... etc. Everybody was getting the job done, and dealing with being away from home.


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## Grand Moff Tim (Apr 26, 2014)

bcolville said:


> I'm not disagreeing with anyones stories or opinions, but most of this stuff is not culture shock. It's just racism/discrimination. Two completely different things.
> 
> An example of culture shock is a western business man being sent to China for some negotiations. He will be "shocked" when he realizes that talking business is inappropriate without having a personal relationship first in China.
> 
> Edit: ThePhilosopher ^ has an excellent example of culture shock



I consider it an example of culture shock coming from a country where racism is a taboo subject and generally considered to be a pretty awful thing, to a country where someone can just casually ask me if all black people have lice .

I've obviously racked up alot more examples of culture shock that might fit your definition better in the 2+ years I've been here, but I was just contributing to the flow of the conversation.


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 26, 2014)

*googling Japanese toilets*


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## mr_rainmaker (Apr 26, 2014)

don`t get me started on how people view and treat american indians....


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 26, 2014)

I've only met one. He was homeless. :-(


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## Grand Moff Tim (Apr 26, 2014)

Konfyouzd said:


> *googling Japanese toilets*



He was talking about what some people affectionately call the "squatty-potties." They have them in Korea also, and likely elsewhere in Asia, too. Instead of being a chair so sit on and shit, they're toilets built into the ground that you squat over and shit. I've seen them here, but I've only pissed in them. I've got a bad knee, so squatting while I do my duty is a no-go.

Here's a quick pic:


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## vilk (Apr 26, 2014)

I try to avoid them, but out of necessity I've used them a number of times. It always feels like I'm going to miss and just shit on the floor, but somehow it turns out ok. I also used them facing backwards for the first year I lived here. I just assumed the high end was the back!


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 26, 2014)

Grand Moff Tim said:


> He was talking about what some people affectionately call the "squatty-potties." They have them in Korea also, and likely elsewhere in Asia, too. Instead of being a chair so sit on and shit, they're toilets built into the ground that you squat over and shit. I've seen them here, but I've only pissed in them. I've got a bad knee, so squatting while I do my duty is a no-go.



I checked it out on Wikipedia. Apparently it's only an Asian thing. But it said there are two types of toilets and one of them looks a lot like the ones we have here in the US, but they have a bunch of electronic shit built into them like an anus cleaner, deodorizer etc.


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## narad (Apr 26, 2014)

Konfyouzd said:


> one of them looks a lot like the ones we have here in the US, but they have a bunch of electronic shit built into them like an anus cleaner, deodorizer etc.



I had one of these in my room the first time I lived in Japan. They speak as well. It's a weird feeling getting ready for bed and realizing that the only time anyone spoke to me the entire day it was my microwave, toilet, or elevator leading the conversation.


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 26, 2014)

Oh that would be weird for me. And I live alone and talk to my dogs!


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## mr_rainmaker (Apr 26, 2014)

Konfyouzd said:


> I've only met one. He was homeless. :-(



sad,and theres no way in todays society he can have a animal hide teepee 
and live out in the woods where he can hunt and fish...
hell I can`t have a damn buffalo,too much damn regulation 
its a damn bigassed hairy cow,I`m gonna eat the damnthing with it gets big enough... 





and wear its hide as a coat


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## chassless (Apr 28, 2014)

I have a story that's on the softer side of culture shock!

Last year i went on a trip to Germany with a friend of mine and we met up with her penpal. He was full blooded German while my friend and me were full blooded Lebanese. 

On our first breakfast together, he toasted his bread, spread butter, and put slices of sausage, in pure German fashion. Me, sitting next to him, toasted my bread, spread Greek white cheese (closest thing to a Lebanese cheese i could find) and diced tomatoes. Then i reached for the bottle of olive oil. At that moment he interrupted me:

"what are you doing ?"

"... Adding olive oil ?" i asked, confused.

"what? You're putting olive oil, on the food just like that ?" he asked again, visibly more confused than me  then he had a taste and liked it. It's as if he thought olive oil was some sort of magical substance ever so rarely to be used, but little does he know that olive oil is an ingredient we all add to all of our meals, all day, every day. And i'm not exagerating


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## dedsouth333 (Apr 28, 2014)

mr_rainmaker said:


> don`t get me started on how people view and treat american indians....



I thought it was supposed to be Native Americans


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## mr_rainmaker (Apr 28, 2014)

dedsouth333 said:


> I thought it was supposed to be Native Americans






yep some american indians get really really miffed if you call them native...


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## Nats (Apr 28, 2014)

One time I went to Italy to visit family and there were movie posters for Beverly Hills Cop 3 (1994). It was 2004. I knew at that point I wouldn't be using any high speed internet the entire time I was there.

Edit: Also the second time I went to Italy in 1990. I was 8 and had a huge appetite. I would eat a pack of waffles every morning before school. All they had there is their small continental breakfast. I'm like "wtf is this shit?!? Go make me some pancakes, mom".


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 28, 2014)

I got called a native in Key West once...

"Oh, honey, look! The natives caught a fish..."

We're Americans...


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## metaldoggie (Apr 28, 2014)

Re: the toilets......the French motorways have something similar but its square and has two foot "islands"

I am a Brit who has been living in the US for almost 14 years.
No culture shock for me since I live in New England and we see a lot of US TV in the UK.

What I don't get is how the British are idolized in this part of the country (maybe the entire US?) I worked retail for 8 years and basically every shift I would hear "Where are you from" or "I love your accent" or "I would love to go to London".
But you don't hear that for other parts of the world (at least I've never experienced it...even working with a couple of people from Iraq, one from Nigeria, Bhutan etc...)

I was even part of a conversation where someone was complaining about "foreigner's stealing our jobs....." it never crossed his mind that I had a green card......and then I pointed it out and he said "oh I didn't mean you!"

The funniest time I experienced ignorance is when I was to decorate the department with 4th of July bunting......the manager clearly didn't see the irony in this.


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## thrsher (Apr 28, 2014)

mind blown


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 28, 2014)

metaldoggie said:


> Re: the toilets......the French motorways have something similar but its square and has two foot "islands"
> 
> I am a Brit who has been living in the US for almost 14 years.
> No culture shock for me since I live in New England and we see a lot of US TV in the UK.
> ...



Americans are obsessed with accents. 

The women think it's sexy if you speak to them in languages they don't understand because "Spanish sounds so sexy." I guess... 

If we were talking economic policy, they'd have nothing but horrible things to say about you because you're not American. 

 @ 



> Oh I didn't mean you!



I get that one a lot too when ppl say stuff like... 

I was just minding my own business when this BLACK guy comes in... And they always say "black" with more emphasis as if I'm supposed to be struck by the same feeling they felt at the time. When I say:



> That sounds unpleasant, but I find it hard to understand why his ethnicity was relevant in this matter...





> Oh you know I didn't mean it like that...



Well... How DID you mean it? Because no one else talks o me like that.


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## metaldoggie (Apr 28, 2014)

I will say the Harry Potter and "Are you Australian?" comments are a bit much (a mix of British and the Boston "twang" is mildly reminiscent of an Aussie I guess).


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 28, 2014)

Harry Potter? REALLY?! I'm sorry...


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## metaldoggie (Apr 28, 2014)

I think he was drunk.....if not, most definitely a d-bag!


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## metaldoggie (Apr 28, 2014)

Not to worry....I have thick skin and don't work retail anymore.
Plus, pretty soon I'm going to become a citizen so my standard response to being asked where I'm from will be "NH"


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 28, 2014)

Ha!

That's like when I speak to Latinos here.

"Oye de que parte eres?"
"Springfield"

You know what I meant fool...


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## will_shred (Apr 28, 2014)

I'm about as white and suburban as they come. The only culture differences I get are between the rich folks of Pittsford, and the rednecks of Lima.


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## ilyti (Apr 28, 2014)

Grand Moff Tim said:


> You become an ambassador for your race/nationality in situations like that sometimes, too. I don't like coffee, so the janitor at the first school I worked at here assumed that meant ALL whites/Americans didn't like coffee, because I was the only one he knew.


Yeah, that one I run into all the time. Not the coffee thing in particular just the "this one person from your general area of the world doesn't like this, therefore you can't possibly like it either". 

I was at a dinner party with this wonderful Italian couple and while serving us all delicious food, for some reason she didn't want to give me any of the eggplant dish. Everybody got eggplant but me. When I asked for some she exclaimed "BUT YOU"RE NORWEGIAN!" .. I'm Danish and even if I was Norwegian, I'd still love eggplant. In her mind, there was no way a Scandinavian could enjoy eggplant. "Ok, I'll give you a tiny bit, see if you like it". I ended up eating WAY more eggplant just to prove a point.

I'm not calling racism on anybody, most of the cultural ignorance I run into is just that; ignorance of the innocent kind. But it can still be frustrating. Assumptions are made about you because of your culture, and assumptions are made about your culture because of you. People are likely to assume I'm weird because I'm Danish, when in fact I was weird in Denmark too. It's not culture, it's just me. "Oh you don't like superhero movies? Well, I guess they don't have big Hollywood movies in Denmark" Yeah, they do, I just don't like them.


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## tacotiklah (Apr 28, 2014)

Oh man, culture shock is the story of my existence! 

So as many of the older forumers on here are aware, I am a transwoman. This means that while I am a woman, I have XY chromosomes. This is topic of much contention for people and I get asked the most ridiculous of questions; the vast majority of them being about my genitals. At first this used to really offend me (I mean come on, who in their right mind says "Hello, I'm ____. So what kind of junk is in your trunk?"), but over time I'm learning patience on my own. Most of the time, it's not people trying to be rude (though they are being very rude without realizing it), but rather that they just don't know any better.
I'm about the only transwoman that the majority of the people in my area know and as such I get some interesting, albeit very awkward conversations. 

Some stereotypes I've encountered include:
- Being a "dick seeking missile", despite the fact that I am dating a cis-gender woman and I tend to prefer to date other women since I have better experiences with them.
- Knowingly plotting to "deceive" and "lure" men. See above reason for why this is bullshit
- That I am a rapist/pedophile trying to rape girls/women while attempting to drop a deuce in the women's bathroom. The only time I'd bother someone else in there is if I need them to hand me a couple extra squares of toilet paper. Even then, I'd likely try and solve that problem on my own first.
- That I am mentally unwell because of who I am. No, I have my own issues that are unrelated to this and the only issues I have that are related to this stem from the treatment I receive from others.
- That I am really a gay man playing dress up. Given that I'm kinda butch in my demeanor and expression, and that I date other women expels this notion entirely. But it still persists for some dumb reason.

I could keep going on and on, but the point remains the same. I encounter ridiculous assumptions about culture and about my "lifestyle" on a regular basis. Over time you sort of learn to judge people less on what it is that they say and more on the context of what is being said. Otherwise you'll end up perpetually assfurious about any form of human interaction and become a hermit. 

Culture shock doesn't just apply to race/nationality/ethnicity either.


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## Wolfie677 (Apr 28, 2014)

Konfyouzd said:


> My first night of college a girl knocks on my door at 3AM. For some reason I was dumb enough to get out of my bed and answer it. When she sees me she says, "Oh I'm sorry! Do you have practice in the morning?"
> 
> No, bitch. I have physics in the goddamn morning.



ROFL!


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## Explorer (Apr 28, 2014)

A case was made that racism and culture shock are unrelated.

Earlier today, this guy was on the street, yelling, "I ain't no n***er lover! Any time something goes wrong, you know a n***er was involved!" I was like, what the ....?! And yes, you can believe that I was shocked, whereas I might not have been if I lived in an area where casual racism was the norm. 

----

Different culture shock: I wanted to buy a deck of playing cards in Spain. 

Now, there's not a place like the American drugstore like Walgreen's or CVS, so I asked where one would go. The people started discussing it. 

"No, not the tobacco shop, that's for postage stamps."

"You'd go to the corner newspaper stand."

They had a lot of other things tossed in there, like the toy store for writing paper and so on. If you didn't grow up in that culture, you'd have no idea what was what....


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## icos211 (Apr 28, 2014)

My culture shocks aren't really race related, but are pretty class related.

I grew up in a town called Greenville, TX. That place is the absolute weirdest combination of very serious gang-banging ghetto and very despicable cousin-banging trailer trash. It is basically the entire spectrum of American poverty played out in the middle of no where. White, Black, Latino, etc, the common threads there are hard drugs(meth mainly, but crack and heroin are staples as well. It was actually the reason that my mom moved us there) and violence. The races were very mixed in the elementary schools, though, so I grew up in an environment of zero discrimination between them. I remember actually getting a little pissed at my mom asking me whether the friend I was describing was white or black. Anyway, I was still a fat, nerdy, shy little kid, and responded to the bullying that I inevitably received how that culture had taught me to. With a swift clock to the face. We bounced around to a few different neighborhoods(though all mostly the same story) for a few years afterwards, and I was constantly in fights in all of them.

My dad, meanwhile, bought a house in an ultra-affluent part of Texas(average home price like 400,000). It was foreclosed in the neighborhood where the rich kids of the town get cheap drugs and cheaper "landscapers". I went to live with him just before my freshman year of high school.

One day, about two weeks after the move, I was playing basketball with a few friends at school, when a slightly older, slightly bigger kid comes and steals the ball from us. So I walk up and punch the prick in the face. Everyone else is absolutely stunned, they've never seen something like that before. The kid responds with something like "You don't want any of this, little pussy", to which I respond by hitting him again. It goes on like this for a little while, him talking big, but constantly backing down, as I grow more confused as to why he won't fight. He had never before experienced someone who would actually fight him, and I had never experienced someone who wouldn't actually fight me. This same thing happened many times, with me taking a fist to anyone who got mouthy and having nothing come of it, before I learned that that wasn't how people in civilized society dealt with one another. Instead it's this game of thrones-esque method of subversion and undermining and alienating people from their or your friends. I miss when you could just hit someone, they hit you, and then y'all were friends again. The druggies also turned from toothless, emaciated, incoherent and constantly shaking to clean-cut, college bound, and constantly in a pissing contest about who's Caribbean or European vacation was more "boss" or some such.

After finally coming to get used to living around those ultra-entitled, ultra-white suburban douche-nozzles, though, I come out to an agricultural university in the "Cowboy Capital of the World", Stephenville Texas. So from destitute ghetto to affluent, pacifist suburbia to literally having to get a seat in the front of class so that I don't have to try and look past someone's cowboy hat have I gone. I'm taking this one a bit easier, though. I've even got my first pair of boots(in black, though. Gotta keep some metal even with my country). Now I just need to learn to 2 step so that I can possibly get some attention from the cow_girls_...


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 29, 2014)

2 step is easy. Get it!

These stories are really interesting by the way. Certain places I go people just assume I can fight because of the way I look. As an adult I've only actually hit one person.


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## icos211 (Apr 29, 2014)

Konfyouzd said:


> 2 step is easy. Get it!
> 
> These stories are really interesting by the way. Certain places I go people just assume I can fight because of the way I look. As an adult I've only actually hit one person.



.... you, it's easy! Fight me, bro, I'll show you how easy it is to two step my foot up your ass!

But seriously, I cat _two step_, but chicks don't want to two step, they want to be spun and dipped and lifted and flipped and shit. I can't even even pretzel.

As for fighting, that's just another unfortunate extension of the "thug" impression. Unfortunate stereotypes are unfortunate, unfortunately.

I'm in for a few more culture shocks, if things go my way these next few years. The vet school that I'm gunning for is on the island of St. Kitts. So I'll probably get to actually see Rasta and the caribbean life by living there with them. Plus that will be the first time I ever even venture outside of the US, so obviously it will be something new no matter what. Cool, hopefully.

After that, I'm to return to Texas and spend a few years in the sparsest country in the nation shoving my hand up cow asses so the department of Ag will forgive some student loans.

Then I'll finally get to settle somewhere between Austin and San Antonio. From what I've heard, Austin is supposed to get weird as hell, so there's that too.


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## dcoughlin1 (Apr 29, 2014)

I think my grandpa had a bit of culture shock yesterday when I took him out to lunch. For the past few years he mostly stays in his retirement home or goes to this one applebees so he is mostly around people his age (70 - 80 years old), so I took him to this place by the beach and we were sitting next to a bi racial couple and after they left he says "boy they were an interesting couple" and I thought he was going to say something ignorant but he said "the whole damn time they were here they have been looking at there phones and haven't said a word to each other or even looked at each other" then he asked "Is everyone your age like that?" I'm really not sure if this would count as culture shock but I guess he's shocked at "modern" culture


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 29, 2014)

Yes it definitely is. 

The funny part to me is that even the culture itself recognizes and makes fun of it, but continues to perpetuate it.


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## Chokey Chicken (Apr 29, 2014)

At work one of the cashiers told a really tall black gentleman that he should quit the medical profession and be a basketball player. I don't think she meant it as a racist thing, and was more about his height, but I still found it immensely offensive. The fact that this guy had likely dedicated himself to the useful medical profession, and was told he should ditch it for the trivial sports profession. I'm betting the guy spent a lot of money to go to school to do what he was doing, and this lady just crapped all over it. I apologized to him, but he seemed completely, and understandably, bitter at what had just happened. There's also the fact that she very much could have been being a racist little shit. Or that maybe he even took it as racism when it wasn't.


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 29, 2014)

A lot of hard work goes into being a professional athlete as well


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## Overtone (Apr 29, 2014)

Who would have thought there would be so many squares at the State Department!


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 29, 2014)

I just figured they'd be less ignorant to other cultures with most of them having spent so much time in other places. All they talk about is how they spent 9 years in ___ or 4 years in ___... And they can tell you the whole history of that place down to where the grains of sand on the beach come from. But to me it seems as though they just use this information as a means of making themselves look important. Having been located somewhere other than America for some extended period of time the way they talk about it to me comes off as more of a notch on their belt than an "experience" if you will... 

When I go to new places, introverted as I may be, the most intersting part of that place for me is the people. I don't give a shit about how tall their buildings are or seeing all the "ooh shiny!" entertainment based stuff they have (although I find some of that interesting as well). I am almost always most interested in the people, the way they do things and their reasoning behind it. I find i interesting to try and understand all the different ways you can view the world and had imagined that perhaps some folks that aspired to work here had similar goals. 

That said, I did NOT start working here for that reason. I started working here because I was put here by my company (I'm a contractor). I just thought that the people who actually applied to work here might not seem just as ignorant as people who've never left their basement.


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## Overtone (Apr 29, 2014)

I hear you. I guess that is a good reminder that being ignorant of your own surroundings (ie. cultures near you physically) is no more excusable than being ignorant regarding international matters... probably less so.


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## Edika (Apr 29, 2014)

chassless said:


> ...but little does he know that olive oil is an ingredient we all add to all of our meals, all day, every day. And i'm not exagerating



That's oh so true. My wife and I go through a 5 ltr olive oil tin can in 3 months when being reserved. The only thing we don't use it for is frying. Unless it's meat.

My experience in culture shock was when I moved in France. It was in the South of France so there was some Mediterranean vibe so it wasn't as much as maybe going to the North, as it France is a big country and there are different influences from region to region. Anyway I was surprised there was a lunch brake that lasted 1 to 2 hours and that vast majority of shops were closed. All my colleagues in the University would be there around 9, have a coffee brake at 10. lunch brake at 12-12:30, coffee brake at 4 and leave around 5 to 5:30 tops. I really didn't understand how they were able to get anything done. Even schools would have lunch breaks for about 2 hours and they would have a 2 week vacation every 6 weeks more or less !
Most restaurants were closed on Sunday and you would see kiosks selling food being closed at 5 or 6 in the afternoon during summer. And customer service is not one of their strong points. Maybe other regions of France are a different.

In Northern Ireland I find people are a lot friendlier and open. They are a bit ignorant though and accept more things without questioning some times and seem to live rather unhealthy. For example most European countries have accepted that deodorants with Aluminum salts are carcinogenic (lymph node cancer) but you can only find one brand in pharmacies only without them. They also use the spray tans products that have substances that would never pass pharmaceutical but is being sold as cosmetics. It also has warning labels. So it solves the problem .
The other culture shock here is seeing everybody wear t-shirts and flip flops when it is sunny and above 15 degrees. It is true that 20 degrees sunny hear feels warmer than 20 degrees sunny in the South but it is still a strange sight. The final thing I still can't fathom is seeing people eat beans for breakfast or beans and fries (chips here) for lunch with a glass of milk. Or in any case drinking a glass of milk with lunch . 

Aside from that no major cultural shocks. As far as expectations, from my part I expect almost any person with rasta that listens to reggae to smoke pot and every one I have met does (no problem with that, just it's a self fulfilling stereotype). 

Most German people I have met so far seem to be really direct but polite and socially awkward. A few Slovenian people I have met were really crazy (in a good sense or if you pissed them off in a bad sense).


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## Overtone (Apr 29, 2014)

chassless said:


> I have a story that's on the softer side of culture shock!
> 
> Last year i went on a trip to Germany with a friend of mine and we met up with her penpal. He was full blooded German while my friend and me were full blooded Lebanese.
> 
> ...



Nice one. I've seen restaurants in the US get confused by certain requests. For example in the Mediterranean everybody knows that most foods are awesome with some lemon squeezed on top, whether it's seafood, grilled meat, salad, or what. It's always a struggle getting enough lemon wedges at American restaurants because they think there's no way a table of four people wants 3 lemons' worth, so they just bring out a couple tiny wedges. Condiments can be like that too... I know an English guy who asked for HOT mustard with his steak. He meant like a dijon or English mustard, but they microwaved some French's and gave it to him


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 29, 2014)




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## Edika (Apr 29, 2014)

It's true about the lemon wedges, they seem very confused. That is the same in almost every country I visited except Spain. 

Last thing I'll say about French people, they can make a mean beef grilled steak anyway BUT well done or close to well done. Then you'll get a burned steak that will probably still be bloody in the inside. Or a hard dried up piece of meat.

EDIT: Actually this is what they do for all red meats. Luckily pork is not considered a red meat and is well cooked. Tough luck finding grilled pork in restaurants however.


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## Explorer (Apr 29, 2014)

dcoughlin1 said:


> ...after they left (my grandpa) says "boy they were an interesting couple" and I thought he was going to say something ignorant but he said "the whole damn time they were here they have been looking at there phones and haven't said a word to each other or even looked at each other" then he asked "Is everyone your age like that?"
> 
> I'm really not sure if this would count as culture shock but I guess he's shocked at "modern" culture



This is a great example of stereotyping which no one has commented on. Why would you expect someone who was older to automatically go towards race?

Even more interesting, it's hardly notable for a lot of people nowadays to just interact virtually when they're physically alongside real people.

I had taken this girl to a music festival a few years ago, and she was on the phone the whole time. After four hours, I finally got some attention via phone, more than a an hour later, after I had walked out of one concert and left her there texting. It took her a while to figure out I had ditched her. *laugh* She really wasn't pahing attention to any of the acts at any of the stages, so I guess I feel honored that she spent the rest of the day leaving voicemails and texts expressing irritation *laugh*

I don't think it's a generational gap though. I know plenty of people older than 40 who get sucked into their phones, Facebook, and other social media. 

A friend of mine hated that I told her she was always on her phone. She thought i was exaggerating until her 3-year-old son, who finally had the words, said, "Mommy, I wish I got as much time with you as your phone does."


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 29, 2014)

Explorer!


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## ElRay (Apr 29, 2014)

Konfyouzd said:


> I checked it out on Wikipedia. Apparently it's only an Asian thing. But it said there are two types of toilets and one of them looks a lot like the ones we have here in the US, but they have a bunch of electronic shit built into them like an anus cleaner, deodorizer etc.



and Afghanistan. Oh, the number of times I held it until I could find a US/NATO latrine.

The ones in Afghanistan often had "riser blocks" so you didn't actually have to stand on the floor near the opening.

Ray


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## dcoughlin1 (Apr 29, 2014)

Explorer said:


> This is a great example of stereotyping which no one has commented on. Why would you expect someone who was older to automatically go towards race?



The only reason I thought my grandpa was going to comment on race is because my grandpa usually does go straight to race.


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## Chokey Chicken (Apr 29, 2014)

Konfyouzd said:


> A lot of hard work goes into being a professional athlete as well




This is most definitely true. I don't intend to offend anyone who works towards being an athlete since it is a very rewarding and difficult path to follow. It just seems offensive to me to basically tell someone that the very meaningful job that they dedicated years of their life to was the wrong choice. The more I think of it, the more I think she was being racist, actually. Every time she repeated the story, and she did quite a bit, she made it a point to mention his race and only occasionally mentioned height. She's actually quite a rude person in general, and I've grown bitter towards her so maybe has something to do with my distaste for the situation. 

I wish I could remember other situations, since I deal with bigotry on a daily basis, but there's nothing all that interesting to share.


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## mr_rainmaker (Apr 30, 2014)

no matter what you say or do or not do someone is going to get offended,thats the fact of todays society now.

I worked in LE for close to a decade,and I`ve seen some pretty inhumane stuff done to fellow man,and I`ve seen stuff (good)that goes against societys "opinion" of people and cultures,i`ve seen "rednecks" defend lgbt`s and I`ve seen "hippys" become violent and I`ve seen a muslim man cover the body of a christian woman to defend her from a beating,I`ve seen spiderman rape a sandwich in arbys,black panthers and white militia stand together against gov overreach,i`ve met radical leftists and militant right,all aspects of todays society and bigotry is more rampant in todays society than it was 20years ago....
and i think its getting worse.


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## JoshuaVonFlash (Apr 30, 2014)

mr_rainmaker said:


> I`ve seen spiderman rape a sandwich in arbys,


That poor sandwich.


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 30, 2014)

ElRay said:


> and Afghanistan. Oh, the number of times I held it until I could find a US/NATO latrine.
> 
> The ones in Afghanistan often had "riser blocks" so you didn't actually have to stand on the floor near the opening.
> 
> Ray



Eww...


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 30, 2014)

Chokey Chicken said:


> This is most definitely true. I don't intend to offend anyone who works towards being an athlete since it is a very rewarding and difficult path to follow. It just seems offensive to me to basically tell someone that the very meaningful job that they dedicated years of their life to was the wrong choice. The more I think of it, the more I think she was being racist, actually. Every time she repeated the story, and she did quite a bit, she made it a point to mention his race and only occasionally mentioned height. She's actually quite a rude person in general, and I've grown bitter towards her so maybe has something to do with my distaste for the situation.
> 
> I wish I could remember other situations, since I deal with bigotry on a daily basis, but there's nothing all that interesting to share.



You know what cracks me up?

I actually met a guy at a hotel once when I was on a business trip. And we were watching some sporting event... I don't remember what it was. 

Turns out he was a doctor...

We talked about how it's interesting that people are still so upset about slavery even though none of use alive today probably had anything to do with what went down. I then noticed the silver lining to slavery...

Years of unintended genetic breeding. Doing all that work for so long might be part of the reason blacks are fabled to build muscle faster and/or part of the reason we kind of dominate a lot of the professional sports. We've been more or less bred to be strong.

That said, pro athletes make SHIT LOADS of money... There go your reparations.. 

That isn't really culture shock, though. That was just funny to me.

On the other hand, there seem to be 2 separate black cultures... There's a saying we grow up with' I'm not sure if everyone's heard it:



> Too white for the black man and too black for the white man...


Which, if it isn't obvious, means that successful black people tend to get it from both sides for different reasons. There is still a subset of whites that don't believe we can be as good as them at things. I don't think any of you guys fall into this category and I"m not particularly bothered by those that are. The fact that I continue to thrive is retaliation enough for me because I know it makes their blood boil. These are the folks that love me during a phone interview, then are rude to me when I show up for the in person interview until I tell them my name. 



> Oh that was you?!


Why wouldn't you have been polite to me anyway? 

Or in English class when we would do grammar exercises and I was really good at it... 



> Why are YOU so good at grammar?


I've been speaking this language just as long as everyone else in here. Why are THEY so bad at it?

Then there's the black folks that, because you seem to be doing well, they'll call you a white boy or some other silly shit as though they wouldn't trade places with you in a heartbeat. This always reminds me of the fox in the Sour Grapes fable. Because I speak clearly, don't exclusively date black girls and want to own property I must be trying to be white, right? In fact, in my area, this weird passive aggressive racial tension seems to be so strong at times that I honestly almost *do* get along better with a lot of the white people than the black people BECAUSE they're so goddamn bitter about things they've only conjured up in their own minds!


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## tedtan (Apr 30, 2014)

Konfyouzd said:


> they're so goddamn bitter about things they've only conjured up in their own minds!



That goes for a lot of conflict, too, not just the racist stuff.


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## tacotiklah (Apr 30, 2014)

JoshuaVonFlash said:


> That poor sandwich.



That also explains all the cobwebs I saw at Arby's...


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## JoshuaVonFlash (Apr 30, 2014)

Konfyouzd said:


> Then there's the black folks that, because you seem to be doing well, they'll call you a white boy or some other silly shit as though they wouldn't trade places with you in a heartbeat. This always reminds me of the fox in the Sour Grapes fable. Because I speak clearly, don't exclusively date black girls and want to own property I must be trying to be white, right? In fact, in my area, this weird passive aggressive racial tension seems to be so strong at times that I honestly almost *do* get along better with a lot of the white people than the black people BECAUSE they're so goddamn bitter about things they've only conjured up in their own minds!


You hit the nail on the head dude, I have to deal a lot of that crap too and it makes me feel really alienated because of the way some people react to it. With some black people me being me is viewed upon them as being a traitor or trying to be something I'm not or as you put it "trying to be white" so I've always had the "dgaf" approach to other people's comments that try to criticize me for being who I am. For some people I'm not viewed as human first, a person of the world that enjoys the varieties we all come in and loves to incorporate all the cool cultures we have into my life, I'm usually viewed as black and with that comes people's expectations on how I'm supposed to act, talk, dress etc. For me black describes most of my ethnic background not who I am or who I should be as a person.


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## bostjan (Dec 16, 2016)

Necrobumping. Sorry not sorry.

This thread is too interesting to leave alone.

Culture is a lot of things to a lot of different people. I, myself, tend to be unapologetic about taking a contrary stance on popular culture that I do not "get." I also have traveled a fair amount, and I really enjoy observing different cultures and sometimes challenging them in ways that make others and myself uncomfortable.

When I was little, I lived in Detroit. Despite being highly critical of stuff people do, 1980's Detroit culture is my point of reference. Similar to other comments I've seen here, this reference point is essentially poverty in a neighbourhood of different ethnic groups that more or less identified into groups: "whites," "blacks," or "immigrants." People immersed in this culture are just people, but, IMO, everything was higher contrast. Smart people were treated like they were really smart, athletes were treated like they were really physical, people with hot tempers didn't try to hide it, subtlety was not really valued.

So, you take this boy out of Detroit and put him in college in the suburbs outside of Detroit. The culture was the same ...., really, but with heaps of subtlety and sarcasm.

In Detroit, I'm not going to lie to try to make things sound better: people spoke with a disgusting amount of racism toward each other, sometimes even referring to their own groups of identification. But in groups of specific people, things worked. Personally, I thought I got along equally luke-warm with just about everybody. I had interest in cultures then, but being completely ignorant about things at the time, I am certain that this was more annoying to people than endearing.

Toward the end of my University days, I went to St. Petersburg for a few months, then traveled around Russia for several weeks, before returning to St. Petersburg for a few more weeks. I made exactly zero friends in Russia, but I was very fond of the culture, in general.

At one point, early in my travel-around-the-country phase, I ate some fresh fruit that had been rinsed in tap water, and contracted CBSS (constant barfing and ....ting syndrome). Some people said I needed to go to the hospital. It was bad, and I thought I was going to die. In a fog, I went to the Apoteka, and in my worst Russian, tried to explain to the Chemist that my insides were coming out from both ends, and he sold me a bottle of pills, and instructed me to take two pills. I took two pills and got so much worse, then I actually read the label of the bottle (my Cyrillic was worse than my spoken Russian) and saw that it was a laxative. I went back and decided to explain by pantomime instead of trying to speak words, and received a medicine to neutralize giardia, and instantly felt much better.

Anyway, in Russia, I was shocked to see that the population was pretty much in bulk, just very pale Russian people, with a tiny tiny speckling of people with darker-white features. Walking down the street one day, a guy in a trenchcoat seemed to have a repelling magnetic field around him - it was quite obvious no one wanted to be near him. I asked one of the people with me what was going on, and I was told that many people are afraid of Chechens. I asked how they could tell he was Chechen, since, to me, he appeared and dressed like a regular white dude. The question was just sort of shrugged off, like "Oh, it's obvious."

After leaving Russia, I moved to Indianapolis. I really think my reference point of urban Detroit city was closer, culturally, to St. Petersburg than to Indianapolis.  Not to crap all over Indy, but I was not used to the philosophy that seemed to permeate everywhere I went - sort of a general lack of any sort of ambition whatsoever. It seemed to me, that, in general, things were either no good or just good enough, with little time to achieve excellence in one particular thing. But teamwork seemed more important to the people I met there. Racism, unfortunately was highly blatant among white people. I heard a lot of things said loudly in public places that made me very embarrassed, and a few times I was honestly frightened by things people said. I had a neighbour put up an "Easter Cross" with Christmas-tree lights wrapped around it, after a lesbian couple moved in. I heard a lot of openly derogatory terms for different races uttered by casual acquaintances, and my disapproval of such terms resulted in more such terms, with suffix "-lover" directed toward me, in one case, by a person who was my boss's boss.

Despite Indy being a diverse town, in the sense of different ethnic groups, or, different identity groups, I assessed that these groups seemed more generally opposed to one another with little tolerance. And I'm speaking only for my limited impression of the general spirit of culture that I picked up there; I may have simply had a series of bad experiences, so please don't assume that my impression is accurate for everyone.

Moving from Indy to rural Vermont. ...Well, this is the whitest place, maybe, in the USA. Maybe most people who live here know one or two Abenaki and one or two black people. From a telescope view on people's lives, I don't really see different "identities," like other places I've lived, except for one really big one...

This may be more widespread than I think it is, but, in my experience here, people seem to be identified as insiders or outsiders to the local culture. The insiders have many terms for themselves, but, I guess, these are people who have known each other their entire lives. They went to school together, worked together, sit in town hall together, etc. Then there are the outsiders, or, well, everyone else: "flatlanders," "city people," etc., who don't necessarily come from cities nor from flat landscapes. Folks here are generally pretty friendly toward outsiders, but not "accepting," and it's very subtle from a telescope view, but it can really hit home if you are immersed in it. I've seen people move here from Connecticut or Massachusetts or where ever and live here for years, then start a business. And, no matter how needed the business is, the "insider" people ignore it, sometimes blatantly. Or an "outsider" will run for public office and get three votes, despite high qualifications or whatever, and no viable alternative. ...and the racism here is quite deep and quite real, but, since there is no diversity in ethnic makeup, it's that boogieman-type racism, not that it's any better or worse than any other type of racism.

Working at a job with some specialized technical stuff, I collaborate with people all over the world, of all sorts of different nationalities and ethnicities, only to hear some really disgusting things when my global colleagues leave, from these "insider" folks. I guess it's some sort of test, to see if I'm, like, a regular racist white guy, or something, I don't know - I have a difficult time trying to rationalize it.

So, that was a long-winded, very unorganized post about my experiences with the places I've stayed for longer periods of time. I've been other places, like Frankfurt, Hamburg, Zürich, Denver, Sacramento, Houston, Atlanta, Calgary, Chicago, Montreal, etc., and I'm usually pretty comfortable with the general urban western culture formats. I have not been to places with vastly different culture formats, further East.

In the USA, though, there is a ton of racism, and I'm not talking just ignorance of culture, but people expressing their perception that they are superior to other groups of people. It's everywhere in the USA, and it's on the surface, and there is more of it down deeper. There is a general intolerance of other cultures. I don't understand it, I don't apologize for it in any way, and I don't like it, but it is there. On top of that, there are some people who don't feel that way, who might A) keep quiet to preserve the peace, B) exhibit gross ignorance toward other cultures, which may be pure naivety or maybe just insensitivity, or C) form and prescribe stereotypes to people, whom they generally do not know, based upon appearance or geographical origin.

I'm not a saint, either. There are tons of cultures I don't understand, and honestly, I brush some cultural things off or dismiss them quickly, because I'm not really interested in them, and that is insensitive of me. I do hope that our culture can pull out of this spiral we've found ourselves in (within the USA - I really don't see it so blatantly in other parts of the world).


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## vilk (Dec 16, 2016)

I just think it's particularly odd that in the USA there are these distinct lines separation, but not necessarily based in any sort of logic or reason; at least, none that I'm personally able to follow. 

Why is it that all of the openly racist (American) people I've ever met are also social conservatives? (I'm not saying all social conservatives are racist. Learn to read you dimwit.) Like, the two ideas don't seem to be in the same field. I should imagine that there's lots of liberal racists, and lots of conservative racists, at a more or less equal ratio--but that certainly does NOT seem to be the case. But like, why in the heck? 

What is the connection between:
Social conservatism
Christianity
Racism
Nationalism (sometimes called Patriotism)

?? Jesus is the most socially liberal person in the entire f///ing Bible. He literally breaks every rule, every norm, pisses off powers that be, stomps all over the status quo, and gets killed for it. And how can you be a nationalist, as in supportive of this nation and its principles, and also a racist, despite the fact that the USA is quite literally founded on intercultural cooperation and support?


But in the same respect, what exactly is the link between:
liberalism
secularism
education
and being/supporting people of color?

Outside of university, I have never met a non-Christian black person. Not even one. I'm not sure what that's about. Yet, despite that, there does not seem to be any strong African American presence in the Christian-Sharia-Law movement to ban abortions and gay marriage. Why does imposing Christian Sharia law only seem to matter to white Christians? And why do we see a correlation between liberalism and education, and also liberalism and PoC, yet PoC have notoriously abysmal access to proper education? 


There's no real point that I'm trying to make aside from that I can't figure out what exactly binds the two major, separate groups we've put ourselves into, because a lot of things about it seem counter-intuitive.


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## Science_Penguin (Dec 16, 2016)

I feel like just growing up has been a sort of "culture shock" to me, in a weird way.

Throughout my childhood, I grew up in a town with a pretty even population of blacks and whites (with some Hispanic mixed in), and we all got along great. As far as my memory goes back, nobody picked on each other for their race, there wasn't a huge divide between us, and, really, it almost seemed like whatever cultural identity the two races brought just kind of melded together. There was never that "What? You like this too?? But you're black/white!" thing going on, cause as far as any of us were concerned, we were basically the same. 

Racism seemed quite literally like a thing of the past. Like, we'd learn about the Civil Rights movement, segregation, and the racism of the time, and think "Well... good thing that's over!"

Now I live in a town of mostly white people, I work a job about a half-hour's drive away with mostly black people, I'm being exposed to the rest of America's cultures through the Internet, and it just seems like all I ever hear about is how different we all are, and, why "this is weird because stereotype stereotype" and... God help us, the social and political situation all over the country isn't helping much either... 

And I gotta wonder, was that just a phenomenon where I happened to live, or has something really changed?


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## vilk (Dec 16, 2016)

^I think it's simpler than that: You're thinking of being in school, being around people your own age. Presuming you're between 20 and 30 as I am? 

Beyond a doubt, racism has died off more with our generation and continues to linger in the one before us. No, I'm not saying all old folks are racists and young people aren't, but if we speak in ratios, I'm certain the ratio goes down each generation.

Also consider that the ratio interracial parents has gone up, up, up!

Funnily enough, I saw some pictures of an Evangelical protest from the 50's where they are carrying signs that say "Race Mixing is Communism". Pretty f///ing preposterous, right? Had myself a chuckle. But then I realized: 50 years ago, that was probably something many people actually had to think about for a good minute.







Why and in what sort of rational mind are race mixing, communism, homosexuality, and drug use related, interdependent issues??


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## A-Branger (Dec 17, 2016)

vilk said:


> ?? Jesus is the most socially liberal person in the entire f///ing Bible. He literally breaks every rule, every norm, pisses off powers that be, stomps all over the status quo, and gets killed for it. And how can you be a nationalist, as in supportive of this nation and its principles, and also a racist, despite the fact that the USA is quite literally founded on intercultural cooperation and support?



yup yup yup, so much truth in there. In my experience, majority of that closed mentality comes from the church itself, of that "my religion is better than yours" and then "we are the real deal" mentality.

thats been one of the min reasons I stopped going out to church as I grew up in a catholic family/school/country. The last two times I went, one with some friends, one because my parents. Both the priest kept talking all about the "we are the real thing" "this is the religion" blah blah "those religions" blah blah kinda speech. But then he preachs on the "help each others like Jesus did"... like WTF??

like one of the main teachings they preach of Jesus is the Love your neighbors no matter what, help the poor, if you are looking for me, help the most needed, help and love your enemies, blah blah blah... In sumary its all about loving each others regardless of their background. Even Jesus itself, helped the prostitute story thing. But when it comes to curretn churches and priest, I have heard all of them bashing (in a soft way) other religions, ways of life, and even one priest bashing hard the homosexuals, talking about how they are NOT a family, NOT married blah blah. That was the first time ever I almost stand up to protest him.

can they just say "we have this marriage, under our "law" its this way.... but there is different kinds of marriages out there, and bless them to find happiness in their lives and share the love, and bring a child into a healthy loving family...sadly I can not marry them, but if they want they can have my blessing" Same deal with other religions, just say "everyone is free to believe in waht they want to, no-one knows the right answer, do what makes you feel good, we all here, love eachothers" and done

but nooo, its a "my way or the F#$%&ng out of here" 



Science_Penguin said:


> I feel like just growing up has been a sort of "culture shock" to me, in a weird way.
> 
> Throughout my childhood, I grew up in a town with a pretty even population of blacks and whites (with some Hispanic mixed in), and we all got along great. As far as my memory goes back, nobody picked on each other for their race, there wasn't a huge divide between us, and, really, it almost seemed like whatever cultural identity the two races brought just kind of melded together. There was never that "What? You like this too?? But you're black/white!" thing going on, cause as far as any of us were concerned, we were basically the same.
> 
> ...



coming from a latin country, I experience the same thing as you. Even as a kids we always joke with each others, calling "negro" (ie: blackie, ......, whatever meaning) to the darkest in our class, same as "chino" (chinese) to the one who had any asian genes... more of a joke, love, rather than being mean about it. Ive never seen or encounter "racism" rather than a pretty basic cultural stereotype of wealth, mostly due to their general appearance/behaviour, rather than their color skin.

Im a firm believer than the only way to really deal with racism, is to not deal with it at all, let thigs flow and shut up about it. Like in your school, no-one talked about it, everyone just go on with their lives and be done. The more I keep hearing the PC police about it the more the problem keeps coming up to the surface, like "oh yeah about that".... Like seriusly, the last movie I saw from (insert famous black comedian name I dont remember here), On the first 5-10 min ALL the "jokes" were about him complaining about the white-vs-black routine. Even if its "right", theres no more racism thing than that. You wanna stop it?, then stop talking about it!!, the more you bring your "jokes" the more you are putting peoples minds into the "yeah F them" 

the more you talk about division, the more you are going to end up diving the people. Even if your point was about to stop such division.


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## Science_Penguin (Dec 17, 2016)

> coming from a latin country, I experience the same thing as you. Even as a kids we always joke with each others, calling "negro" (ie: blackie, ......, whatever meaning) to the darkest in our class, same as "chino" (chinese) to the one who had any asian genes... more of a joke, love, rather than being mean about it. Ive never seen or encounter "racism" rather than a pretty basic cultural stereotype of wealth, mostly due to their general appearance/behaviour, rather than their color skin.
> 
> Im a firm believer than the only way to really deal with racism, is to not deal with it at all, let thigs flow and shut up about it. Like in your school, no-one talked about it, everyone just go on with their lives and be done. The more I keep hearing the PC police about it the more the problem keeps coming up to the surface, like "oh yeah about that".... Like seriusly, the last movie I saw from (insert famous black comedian name I dont remember here), On the first 5-10 min ALL the "jokes" were about him complaining about the white-vs-black routine. Even if its "right", theres no more racism thing than that. You wanna stop it?, then stop talking about it!!, the more you bring your "jokes" the more you are putting peoples minds into the "yeah F them"
> 
> the more you talk about division, the more you are going to end up diving the people. Even if your point was about to stop such division.



Oh, and then there's also the backlash that the PC Police thing has caused. Cause, now that we have that "SJW" extreme people can point to, it's almost given actual racist (and sexist, while we're at it) d**chebags free reign to act as d**chy as they want. Now, when people call them out on their sh*t, even in a completely rational way, they just hide behind the idea of "Well, looks like I'm yet another victim of the PC Police!" And other a**holes rally to their side cause "Hur hur, let's piss off some Tumblrf*gs!" I think that's another big reason why we seem to live in a more racist world...

Hell, on the topic of sexism, we treated the girls in our school like equals too (save that typical childish "Girls, eeeugh!" that was done as a joke from time to time) Again, that was another thing where we thought "Cool, sexism is dead! Susan B. Anthony and Wendy the Welder killed it!" but now, suddenly it's a hot mess, for the very same reasons.

You see it all the time with female musicians- White Knights shower them with empty praise, d-bags give them harsher criticism almost solely as a counter to the White Knights, and the legitimate praise and criticism somewhere in the middle gets swept away by both of the extremes... 

Actually, it suddenly occurs to me that the biggest culture shock of my life has been my exposure to "Internet Culture"... Never have I asked myself "What the hell is going on here?! Who thinks this way?!" more times than when I've been online.


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## Chokey Chicken (Dec 17, 2016)

I knew some racists back in high school. I've gotta say, ignoring it and just moving on was not something that should be done. Sometimes racism isn't just off-color jokes. Sometimes racism is throttling someone with a bike chain just because. I envy you folks whos only experience with racism was crude language. 

I still know of several of their whereabouts, and they haven't changed for the better. Ignoring the kid with full on nazi shrines, a history of violence based on race, who owns guns and exercises poor gun safety (think point blanking trees in the woods just off the highway), is foolish.


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## ElRay (Dec 21, 2016)

vilk said:


> ... Why and in what sort of rational mind are race mixing, communism, homosexuality, and drug use related, interdependent issues??



'cause Jebus!


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## bostjan (Dec 22, 2016)

Well, Christians are a diverse group.

So, you have your (1) deep traditionalists, like devout Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and, to some extent Lutherans, and then (2) modern traditionalists: Southern Baptists, Methodists, etc., and finally (3) new age Christians, non-denominationals, and so forth.

I think that you'll find that the conservative Christian movement is really a social movement strongly along traditionalist lines, geared upon the mainstream of modern traditionalists.

These are the folks who generally take a more literal approach to the Bible, yet also have tons of norms outside of the scope of the Bible, such as placing taboos on dancing, rock music, playing cards, etc. These are traditions that do not extend back to Jesus, but rather, back to the fundamentalist teachers of the 16th and 17th centuries, who were cast out of Europe for being too extreme, so they came to the new world.

Because the 13 colonies were such a melting pot of different religious extremists and religious moderates, as well as a handful of irreligious people, the political climate geared itself toward tolerance, but that didn't mean that people agreed to see eye to eye, really, and the struggle between factions has continued ever since.

As far as the black community in Chicago being almost entirely Christian, I was not aware of that. In Detroit, there are large groups of Christians with black ancestry, Muslims with black ancestry, Christians with ancestral histories from the Levant and fertile crescent areas, Muslims with ancestral histories from those areas, and atheists from all ethnic backgrounds.


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## JeffFromMtl (Dec 23, 2016)

I've been in China for 7 months now and I'm not sure what I've been experiencing is quite culture shock. I've spent most of my life being something of a minority, having grown up speaking (primarily) English in a French-speaking city in an English-speaking country. The identity of an Anglo-Montrealer is of two solitudes in that we're not entirely connected to Quebecois culture, nor Canadian culture. We get part of the experience, but not the whole thing.

Now, as layered as I think culture in Montreal is (especially considering that on top of the two solitudes thing, it's a city of immigrants. A Montrealer is not just one of two things, its a lot more than that) it is even more so here. The Chinese identity is incredibly complex given the history and politics of the country. And given that the country has pretty much been on fast-forward and gone through almost 100 years of global development since the mid-90s, there's also a massive generation gap.

I'll start with the old. I'll be honest. A lot of old people here are straight-up assholes. I think this is for many reasons. The conditions they grew up in were largely pretty terrible and they had to push and shove for their place in the country. Add to that what the lost generation went through and were taught to believe, and that's what you get. When I was in a traffic accident and separated my shoulder, I had to go to the hospital. And I will tell you this: even if your arm is in a sling, an old Chinese person absolutely will push you out of the way to get into an elevator first. It's just the way it is. The public persona here is just like that. You look forward and go, no matter who is in the way. Public transit is the same. There's no getting off the bus or metro people people start pushing their way in. Even if there's an announcement played on a loudspeaker to remind people to let others off first or metro cops trying to direct people. There will be no system, no order.

Driving and traffic are the exact same way. Right of way is not a concept that exists, as whoever wants it just takes it. A green light, for the first 5-10 seconds, does not really mean go, it means proceed with caution. Traffic laws are almost impossible to enforce consistently here, as the city I live in has a population of about 14-15 million people and there's just no way. And if you do get caught breaking the law, every cop has his price. And this ignorance of traffic laws and reckless way of driving is exactly what put me in the hospital in the first place. In the circumstance, that I got hit, two people were breaking the law simultaneously and I had to choose which one to avoid. The ebike just separated my shoulder - I'm sure the car would have done much worse.

Anyway... I have to go to work so I'll finish later. But just a start for now, I guess.


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## You (Dec 23, 2016)

These accounts of "Cultural Shock" are interesting, I must say. However, I am not surprised of the "Shock" portion of this, for as there is always an expectation vs. reality when regarding other cultures of the world, as a result of unwilling ignorance. 

I have lived in the state of Arkansas for most of my life, and have only ventured outward very few select times in my life. Therefore I have no first hand experience of this "Culture Shock" phenomenon, though I read about other cultures and traditions online, out of sheer curiosity. I read about the living conditions of North Korea, how many homes are without electricity, and how there is propaganda on a nigh inescapable level. This is simply one example, however.


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## Ebony (Dec 25, 2016)

Culture shock to me is when you travel to places where people use makeup on their buttcheeks, eat hanging upside down or kiss you in odd places. 

Not when people pester and hate each other over slightly different "reasons" than our own.

That is "stupidity shock", something I personally never get shocked about. 

And the sad truth is, life is a circle. Every ounce of stupidity we have encountered and to a slight degree overcome is bound to be repeated at least a thousand times until sapiens sapiens chokes.


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## vilk (Dec 27, 2016)

^I've also understood that since this thread began it wasn't really titled accurately.

_But consider this point of cultural difference between Europeans and Americans!:_
Almost every European person I've met has been to a wide variety of countries. Presumably, it's because European countries are comparatively small, all bunched around each other, and within the EU all you need is a passport to cross a border whenever you please. You can even take the train for a day trip.

Not only have most Americans never been outside the country, they haven't even really thought about it. Most of them couldn't really even tell you where they would want to visit outside America, and even if they did manage to come up with something, they'd probably prefer to travel within the country if it were an option. Like, if you said to an American person: "Would you rather go on a tour of Europe or visit the Grand Canyon", you had better place your bets on Grand Canyon. Because the USA is such an expansive country, to catch a plane anywhere else than Canada or Mexico will veritably never cost you less than 1000$, multiplied by a family of four--in general, only "rich" or "basically rich" families have ever traveled abroad. If you meet someone who has been to many countries, usually it's considered a plain indicator of a highly privileged upbringing.


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