A charming Reddit thread highlights tiny culture shocks, from emergency pull strings in Italian showers to head shaking in Bulgaria.
It never discontinue to amaze me howeggs are not refrigerated in France ; how mantle are somewhat much a foreign conception in the Netherlands ; or how it ’s illegal to betray gumwood inSingapore . These are the idiosyncracies that tend to leave a lasting stamp on me during my travels , the nuggets of info I opt to share with Friend back home , over blanket statements like , “ The architecture was sensational ! ” or “ The masses were so friendly ! ” And Reddit reveals , as it so often does , that I ’m not alone in my fascination .
In a recent station on the subreddit r / Travel , u / NotACaterpillar mull over on their experience grappling with the invert “ blistering ” and “ moth-eaten ” directions of the taps in Uzbekistan , at long last place the question , “ What ’s a mundane and humble matter from a foreign country that surprised you ? ”
One major base emerge from this thread is the diversity of restaurant norms . One Redditor , for example , called out the free tappa bark you get with a beer purchase in many parts of Spain . Another appreciated the little tableside “ trees ” for coating and purses useable at restaurants in Mexico City . U / MildyResponsible writes , “ In Korea , and to a smaller extent in China , it ’s not only acceptable to yell out for your waiter to come to your table , it ’s expected . ”
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And then there ’s the culturally relative nature of rule - pursuit . In Germany , for instance , pedestrian traffic rules are takenvery gravely .
There ’s something so poetic about being “ el ultimo ” in a organization of ordered chaos .
U/ Proud_Relief_9359 receipt the country - by - country differences in ideas about bathroom safety . Building codes in Italy require all showers to have an emergency “ string ” one can pull to fathom an alarum , should they slip and accrue . Meanwhile , in the UK , construction codification maintain that there be no switch or plug sockets in bathrooms . The Redditor writes , “ Both commonwealth have ideas about can safe that are strong enough to enforce in building computer code , butcompletely different ideasabout what the risks are . ”
Meanwhile , in Kyoto , such safety precautions might lead to public humiliation .
There are some really terrene ones , like door open in instead of out in Australia , or the first floor being marked as “ zero ” in many European countries . But perhaps the funniest response are the communication differences . In Bulgaria , for example , mass stimulate their head side to side to express “ yes ” and up and down to express “ no . ” One Redditor took real yield with the American “ how are you ? ” as a standard greeting . “ As a non - native speaker , it feel like an invitation for a conversation , ” they write .
What ’s so charming about these uncovering — and perhaps what gain them so memorable — is the fact that they ’re often not written about in the guide ; they ’re perceptiveness we traveler have to discover for ourselves , through trial , mistake , and a good laugh .
