Culture shocks

[Kyng]

As I'm sure we all know, the countries of the world often have very different cultures, norms and customs. Therefore, when travelling to another country, it's always wise to do some research beforehand, to find out what the main differences will be. However, even if travellers have done their research, they'll always get tripped up by the little things that nobody tells them. In other words, they've run into 'culture shock': it's pretty much inevitable that we'll experience it when visiting countries with a different culture from our own - and likewise, people from those countries will experience it when coming here .

For example, Chinese tourist Ella spent two months in England - and here, she talks about 11 of the culture shocks that she encountered. The video is in Chinese, but English subtitles are provided:



I won't list all 11 points (because then there'd be no reason to watch the video ) - but, I'll just list three of my favourites:

• Toilets - In China, people always put their used toilet paper in a basket, to prevent the toilet from getting blocked. Of course, here in England, it's the opposite: we'll put our toilet paper in the toilet before flushing it . (Fortunately, her partner Scott warned her about this before she came to the UK: that could have been embarrassing if he hadn't !)
  
  
• Cutting the grass - In England, most of us have neatly-mown lawns in our gardens. However, this just isn't done in China - so, Ella found it rather weird.
  
  
• Leaving the nest - Now for a more heart-warming one. Ella had always been taught that, when an English child turns 18, their parents don't care about them any more (and indeed, those kids won't care for their parents when they get old). However, when she came to England to see for herself, she discovered that it was quite the opposite: parents do still care about their children, even once they've become adults and moved out!

So, were there any from that video that you found surprising? And do you have any of your own to add - either that you've heard from other people, or that you've experienced yourself?