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Post by Moose on Oct 9, 2015 17:48:06 GMT
Where have you been in the world where the culture was most different to that that you are used to? And personally as I am untravelled I suppose I'd have to say London - after being raised in small towns and rural villages it was quite an eye opener. Too many people
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Post by Kye on Oct 9, 2015 18:05:33 GMT
Cambodia, I'd have to say. People really see the world differently there. But I was still amazed at how much we had in common.
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Post by Mari on Oct 10, 2015 8:23:32 GMT
Though I've been all around the world, I've never received a culture shock as big as when I moved from my hometown to Leiden.
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Post by Miisa on Oct 10, 2015 8:48:54 GMT
I had a surprisingly big culture shock at age 10 when I moved from Norway to Finland. This was the mid-80's, and I remember feeling then like I stepped 30 years back in time. Little things like girls and boys expected to socialise in separate groups and take different subjects in school (sewing vs. woodwork), where it had all been very ungendered and mixed in Norway. The difference is probably not as great any more, but I expect that when one moves one discovers so many little things that are different that are not as apparent when just visiting.
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Post by juju on Oct 10, 2015 10:35:10 GMT
I went to Morocco twenty-odd years ago, which is the most different culture I've experienced. I was with a group of backpackers and we traveled by train from Tangier to Marrakesh - it was amazing.
Life there seemed more, I dunno, 'in your face' - ie hectic, vibrant, noisy, colourful - certainly in Marrakesh.
However on the way there I remember waking at a stop in the middle of the desert, to let the most wrinkly man on the planet onto the train to sell us prickly pears for breakfast - delicious! That was a peaceful place.
If love to go back. I wonder if it's changed much?
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Post by JoeP on Oct 10, 2015 12:51:46 GMT
Where have you been in the world where the culture was most different to that that you are used to? Whitehaven. And personally as I am untravelled I suppose I'd have to say London - after being raised in small towns and rural villages it was quite an eye opener. Too many people Oh.
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Post by Moose on Oct 10, 2015 17:33:22 GMT
Hmph Was Whitehaven really that different to you? Actually perhaps it was. It does, as Miisa said about moving from Norway to Finland, seem as though things are quarter of a century or so behind the rest of the country. That being said, even in the 80s in Whitehaven I had to take woodwork and metalwork and boys had to take cookery and sewing I hated all of them equally.
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Post by JoeP on Oct 10, 2015 17:41:33 GMT
I can't really think of any one place that had a surprisingly different culture ... maybe because they turned out to be quite like I expected. Or possibly because I usually pay more attention to the scenery and wildlife than any pesky human "culture".
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Post by Alvamiga on Oct 10, 2015 18:25:13 GMT
Up until my year, the lessons were split by gender, but ours did both for a few lessons and then had a choice. Most still went with the stereotypical split though.
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Post by Miisa on Oct 10, 2015 19:05:23 GMT
In Finland we had to pick one and only did the other for about two weeks (maybe four hours), in Norway we had to do both equally. There we also had gym together, whereas Finnish gym lessons the boys and girls were split up.
I asked my daughter and she said that this year they have gym together, last year it was still separate. Not sure if it is an age group thing or if it just now switched to co-ed for all age groups. I know it was not dependant on age when I was at school.
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Post by tangent on Oct 11, 2015 12:19:28 GMT
Cuba and Bulgaria, Cuba being communist and Bulgaria still at that time influenced by its communist past.
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Post by ProdigalAlan on Oct 12, 2015 17:54:23 GMT
I have had to work in several Islamic countries. They were not to my taste at all. In fact I found them morally repulsive.
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Post by whollygoats on Oct 13, 2015 0:25:30 GMT
The central Asian states...Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.
New York City was very different from what I had been used to, as well.
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Post by Moose on Oct 13, 2015 21:29:12 GMT
More different that the something or other stan states? . I wonder how different I'd find London to NYC
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Post by whollygoats on Oct 13, 2015 22:44:32 GMT
Different in a different way.
I suspect that you would find NYC even more overwhelming than London. I personally found London to be a bustling megalopolis, but still 'sedate' compared to NYC.
Then there was Jerusalem, which was sort of like NYC mooshed together with central Asia.
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Post by Moose on Oct 13, 2015 23:40:49 GMT
London is an interesting mishmash of old and new though I can't claim to know it very well .. much of the time I've only seen it when I was going through it. I don't like it all that much though there are Things To DO there.
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Post by whollygoats on Oct 14, 2015 5:03:49 GMT
London is an interesting mishmash of old and new though I can't claim to know it very well .. much of the time I've only seen it when I was going through it. I don't like it all that much though there are Things To DO there. La. I'll say. Things to do. Endless...things to do. I've only seen about 45 minutes worth of hurrying through the British Museum and I've never set foot in the Tate. It's expensive, though. For a traveler, any way.
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Post by raspberrybullets on Oct 14, 2015 10:26:25 GMT
I suppose Thailand would be the most different culture, especially Bangkok. Those mega Asian cities are something quite different. People are the same though.
I actually feel the most weird at times going to the west side of Melbourne. I live on the the south-east side, and it's just like being on another planet. I sometimes think it's what should be the same but isn't, that is the biggest culture shock.
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Post by Moose on Oct 16, 2015 20:47:11 GMT
what is on the West side of Melbourne?
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Post by tangent on Oct 17, 2015 9:00:39 GMT
There are some pretty cool wind surfing beaches to the west of Melbourne.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2015 13:19:06 GMT
I found Bavaria weird as a teenager. It was so hard to understand the people there. And these days, going back to the village I grew up in is always a bit of a culture shock. I have always felt more at home in Northern Germany since I never spoke the dialect of the area I grew up in, but going back now is really strange. It is even weirder for Frank, I think. A neighbour asked my mother about him because of his accent.
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Post by Moose on Oct 20, 2015 17:53:19 GMT
Is there still prejudice against Brits in Germany? Despite the war having ended a comparatively long time ago, among my generation at least it still feels quite recent. Not quite sure what the younger generation make of it .. if anything
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Post by JoeP on Oct 20, 2015 20:05:05 GMT
Moose ... don't mention the war!
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Post by whollygoats on Oct 20, 2015 21:15:05 GMT
Why not mention the war? When I was there last year, the Germans mentioned the war repeatedly. And nobody said anything nasty about the Brits.
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Post by Kye on Oct 20, 2015 21:39:44 GMT
I think that's a phrase that was used in a British comedy (I might be wrong).
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Post by whollygoats on Oct 20, 2015 22:32:02 GMT
Ah...A literary reference I missed, eh? That would not surprise me. I guess it's the comfy chair for me....
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2015 21:15:39 GMT
Is there still prejudice against Brits in Germany? Despite the war having ended a comparatively long time ago, among my generation at least it still feels quite recent. Not quite sure what the younger generation make of it .. if anything Not really. Except for the prejudice against Brits drinking at Mallorca, but the Germans are just as bad. Some say they are too polite, but Germans are extremely impolite which is hard for me because I struggle to be impolite if I need to. When I was in 5th grade (1995 or 1996), our elderly English teacher told us not to visit Great Britain because the British still hated the Germans and would beat us up if we admitted we were German. But Frank's mother has been living there since the 1960s. She is German and never had problems. One prejudice which still exists is that the British have really bad food, but I don't like most of the "typical" German food, like "currywurst", anything with sauerkraut and bratwurst and the suff you can get at the "Octoberfest".
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Post by tangent on Oct 22, 2015 11:48:37 GMT
... the British have really bad food... like deep-fried Mars bars?
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Post by jayme on Oct 22, 2015 12:09:45 GMT
Deep-fried Snickers are better.
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Post by Moose on Oct 22, 2015 23:57:44 GMT
Don't mention the war if from Fawlty Towers I do remember Antti telling me that when his dad visited the UK x number of years ago (not sure) he was called a 'Kraut' because he was assumed to be German. But you can find racist assholes in any era I think
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