15 Stories From People Who Experienced Firsthand What Cultural Differences Are

Even people from neighboring regions can sometimes confuse each other with peculiarities of their everyday life or other cultural differences. And people from different countries is a totally different matter. A foreigner can be struck to the heart by absolutely mundane things, like popular dishes, attitude to debts, or even such a small thing like how to eat grapes.

• I live in Italy. My husband is Italian. We have a cold. The other day I made a cocktail to gargle the throat made of salt, baking soda, and iodine.
  In the evening, I said, “We should do it again.” Husband, “I can’t drink it anymore.” Drink?! © Overheard — They’re talking about you here / VK
• I had been dating a Dutch guy for almost a year. One day I wanted to buy a bottle of water but had no spare change with me, so I asked him to borrow some. The bottle costed approximately 1.2 euros. Somehow the following week I had completely forgotten to give his money back.
  The next morning, he wrote a very detailed message about how borrowing money without returning them shows a bad character, with his PayPal account at the end, so I could transfer the money. © elissfr / Reddit
• When I visited Italy, most people appear to use clotheslines to dry their clothes (at least in Naples and Sorrento). Like, even really expensive, nice-looking places had clotheslines with stuff on them in their yards or balconies.
  I actually respected Italy for it. Like they’re a rich enough country that the average person could easily afford to use a dryer, but they choose to use air-drying. © SleepyConscience / Reddit

• When I first came to Germany and didn’t know the language, I was in the supermarket and saw many packets with animal picture on it. In India, it is normal to have brand with animal pictures as logo — a tiger in the brand does not mean the food is for tiger.
  I bought some of the ‘cat brand’ food, thinking it is for humans. I was eating it at my desk when my colleague saw it in shock. Good that he told me that it is for cats. © Rudradeb Mitra / Quora
• I was talking to a Spaniard about cultural differences, and he said he knew an easy way to tell if someone was from a Slavic country, even if they spoke Spanish without an accent. I asked, “What is it?”
  He replied, “When you ask ’how are you doing,’ a person from a Slavic country starts to tell you how they’re doing, whether they like the weather, about difficulties at work, in the family, but Spaniards, for example, never say anything longer than ’good’.” And we were not talking about strangers, but people who know each other, even friends. © thesme15 / Pikabu
• We were in Malta for a couple of months last summer, and it was absolute torture, mainly due to the fireworks. For about 3 months, it is ’Festa’ season in Malta, where various saints are celebrated. Each village has a main Festa day and celebrations go on for about a week before and some time afterwards.
  During this time, fireworks and bangers are set off, often from early morning right through until midnight or the early hours. The bangers in particular are so loud that buildings shake. Also, all of the many dogs bark every time too. © oh_no551 / Reddit
• I live in a cheap student dorm in France. Yesterday, social workers came to inspect how the students live. They were standing on the doorstep with sad faces, sighing, and then said that I’d have to move out.
  Do you know why? Because the wallpaper in my room is old, and I can’t live like this. They gave me a new renovated room on the floor above. © Chamber 6 / VK

• We lived in Venezuela. We invited some locals over for dinner. It’s nighttime, and they don’t leave. My husband kept hinting to them that we usually sleep at this time. He barely managed to walk them to the door, and they got stuck there — they just stand and don’t leave.
  I pleaded in despair, “Guys, maybe you should go home?” And they said, almost crying, “You don’t let us go!” It turns out that in Venezuelan culture, it’s rude for a guest to leave on their own. You have to wait until the host walks you to the door, opens it and walks out the door with you.
• I moved to Denmark a couple of years ago, and the biggest culture shock for me was julefrokost. Julefrokost translates to “Christmas lunch” which sounds like a nice, wholesome lunch to celebrate the holidays.
  The first time I went to one, my husband warned me not to eat anything beforehand because there is a lot of food. I didn’t think much of it, I mean we have Thanksgiving in the U.S. so I just assumed it was a big lunch. No. We have nothing like this in the U.S. Julefrokost is on an entirely different level.
  You see, it’s a lunch only in name. What it really is, is sitting down at about noon, and not getting up from your seat again until midnight or later. The food never stops coming. It’s course after course after course. My first julefrokost, I was full to the point of bursting at 3 p.m. © Aelle1209 / Reddit
• I came as an exchange student to Europe. Our group decided to go to a country house together for a weekend. I had packed a month’s worth of stuff, so my suitcase was very heavy.
  I asked the Italian guy to help me. And he said, “Are you sure?” I said, “Yes, please help me.” He took my suitcase and carried it to the car.
  Then another classmate — a Spaniard — comes running up and gently explains to me that if I don’t plan to have a relationship with this particular Italian, I should carry my suitcase myself. Meaning that I fatly hinted to the Italian guy that we’d have everything. I shouted as loud as I could so that the Italian would give my suitcase back. © Overheard Abroad / VK

• In Beijing, Chinese people stare at you without hiding — on the street, in cafes, in hotels. A guy once came up to me and pulled a hair from my head with a smile. He twisted it around his finger, then took out his wallet and put it in a compartment with a transparent window. I was stunned, but it turns out it’s one of their customs — put a blonde hair in your wallet for luck. © Overheard Abroad / VK
• My Japanese boss looked so horrified/offended when I ate a grape with the skin still on. I’m sure I committed many social faux pas there, but this one may have garnered the worst reaction. © RavioliGale / Reddit
• I live in Germany, and in our county there are no speed limits on the autobahns. My husband and I went to visit his sister, and he likes to drive fast. So, he’s driving as fast as he can.
  Suddenly a small car overtakes us very quickly. I was surprised. But I was even more surprised when I saw that there were 2 old ladies in that car, aged about 70. © Podsushano — Here they talk about you / VK
• Once in Turkey, I’m standing in line at the checkout. Suddenly a local lady gets interested in the contents of my basket. She pokes at a bag of buckwheat and asks me in surprise what it is and how to cook it.
  I start to explain and then for the first time I read what is written on the package. It says “karabuğday,” which literally translates as “black wheat.” Well, I’d be wary of cooking this stuff, too.

“What do you think of salted dumplings and borscht with dumplings?”

• I lived in Italy for 3 years. Going out in the morning and having a coffee in a coffee shop near the house is a common thing there. I had one on the ground floor of my house. On weekends, almost all the neighbors were there in the morning.
  And the interesting thing is that they went there in their home clothes, in pajamas, home T-shirts, bathrobes. At first, I was surprised, then I got used to it and started doing like them myself. I’ve recently returned to my homeland. There’s a good coffee shop across the street.
  Somehow, out of habit, I went there on Saturday, wearing pajama pants and a stretched T-shirt. I sat there for a long time, reading a newspaper. It was only when I got home that I realized why everyone had been staring at me. © Overheard Abroad / VK
• In Japan, one of many confusing things: Not being able to take credit for something accomplished. All the false humility we’re supposed to project. Disapproving looks I get when I accidentally compliment myself or congratulate myself... even jokingly. Not even being allowed to say something I cooked was delicious, without being made to feel like I’m a jerk somehow. © shufu_san / Reddit
• In Netherlands, children make appointments with their parents to meet them. Let that sink in. I was really shocked when one of my Dutch colleagues casually told me one day that he couldn’t make it for our plans on a particular day because he had an appointment to meet his mother. If he didn’t see her that day, it was hard to reschedule.
  I was like huh... what in the world? And here, my mom panics if I don’t call her one day or don’t reply to her text. She calls me whenever she sees me online on WhatsApp—no warning, no nothing. Don’t want to change that, though. © Shivani Joshi / Quora
• We used to rent out our flat as Airbnb. One day, 3 young Chinese girls moved in. Eventually, they called us at midnight and said that there was blackout. We asked them to check if there were lights in the common areas of the building, to understand whether the problem is in the entire building or only in the flat.
  They refused, saying they were afraid. We couldn’t persuade them, so we had to go to them. We arrive. There are lights in the staircase. We enter the flat. And we see that there’s water in the bathroom!
  It turned out that they were taking a shower, and the shower curtain wasn’t closed and water poured directly onto the floor, because they always have a drain in the floor in their home country. There was a washing machine in the bathroom and a socket right above the floor — apparently there was a short circuit and the flat got blacked out. © FAMILY SPORT / ADME

And here are some cultural mistakes that are best to avoid when traveling overseas.