Culture Shocks Americans Faced Moving Home From Abroad

Culture shock is defined as "the feeling of disorientation experienced by someone who is suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes."

But what if the culture is the one you were born and raised in?

Reverse culture shock is defined as "the emotional and psychological discomfort experienced by someone when they return to their home country after living abroad for an extended period, finding their familiar culture now feels somewhat foreign or disorienting, making it difficult to readjust to their old life."

Reddit user Zealanderrat asked:

"Americans who have lived abroad, biggest reverse culture shock upon returning to the US?"

Comfort Level

"Music in restaurants is SO LOUD."

~ airin1994

"It's typically done on purpose at restaurants in order to move and turn the tables faster."

"That's also why the seats are typically not that comfortable and it's too cold or hot."

"Absolutely this is something done in the restaurant industry in the USA."

~ Panta7pantou

Buy, Buy, BUY!

"The massive amount of advertising and upsells."

"As soon as you get on a plane back to the US, it's all 'sign up for this credit card' and 'watch these ads before and after the safety briefing' and 'you can pay later for all this, no payments today'."

"It absolutely screams into your brain at every opportunity."

~ dmx007

But What's The Mezzanine?

"It took me a second to remember that 1st floor is also the ground/lobby floor in the United States every time I got in an elevator for a few weeks."

"In a lot of other countries, those are two separate floors. What the US calls the 2nd floor is called the 1st floor in most of the places I've been."

~ rickettss

Don't Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

"How uncommon it is seeing people in public smoking cigarettes in the US."

~ labrats21

"I quit when I came back from Germany, and I was blown away by how often I didn’t encounter other smokers in the US, when I had assumed I’d have to deal with that temptation often."

"People smoke everywhere in Europe."

~ StJoeStrummer

Sunday Funday

"Coming back, I was so happy that I could do something as simple as grocery shop on a Sunday. Still, it feels odd to have options on Sunday at first."

"First day I arrived in Vienna, Austria, it was a Sunday and in the apartment that I had rented there was nobody in the office or picking up the phones so I could get my key."

"I had all my bags for my 4 months I was spending there and had to stroll around the city to find a hotel to accommodate me for the night."

~ Clam_Cake

Healthcare? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Healthcare!

"Returned to the US from Korea. It gets talked about all the time, but just how unnecessarily complicated and inconvenient our healthcare system is."

"To go from a system where you can go see a doctor/specialist any day of the week without an appointment, and to know you will be covered, and to have the peace of mind that you'll spend probably less than $20, to then go to whatever we have here...it's just absurd to me."

"I also pay twice for my healthcare here than I did in Korea. We are so duped for a system that is openly robbing us and not keeping us well."

~ Shauney

High Alert

"Coming back to the US from Cairo, it was not needing to be so alert all the time. There’s a lot to like about Cairo, but it is a tourist city and a lot of the businesses and locals take advantage of the tourists."

"It’s a little thing, but you have to be ready to argue vehemently about every price and service. I didn’t realize how much that was stressing me out until I came home."

~ cownan

Customer Disservice

"Going from Japan customer service to US customer service is a colossal downgrade."

~ theguineapigssong

"Listen, being at work sucks. I know, I worked customer service. But GODDAMN..."

"The amount of people here who have acted like I caught them on their day off. Like I interrupted their otherwise lovely day."

"I’ve gotten eye rolls for asking for the rest of the food I paid for. I’m never an a**hole either. I go out of my way to be as polite and easygoing as possible, I know they deal with a**holes all day."

"I asked you to hand me my f*cking pretzel. Could you not act like I’m your mom’s new boyfriend?"

~ Vegetable-Fan8429

Do The Math

"Taxes not being included in price on the sign."

~ over__________9000

"Have to guess at what the price will be when the tax is added because it isn't even a uniform amount, it's dependent on the category of goods and services and some subjected to additional state or local tax, etc...

~ Persephone_darkside

Wide Open Spaces

"After being In India for a while, coming back to the USA, the feeling of having personal space was such a relief."

~ NancyAngelBloom93

"My co-workers from India comment on how much open green space we have here. Lots of parks and trees even in cities."

"Even streets can have a lot of space around them with grass and trees, and only a relative handful of cars and pedestrians except at the busiest times. Everything seems so lush and green and uncrowded compared to the Indian cities they came from where population in a highly populated country is concentrated into cities."

"There's either wilderness/jungle or farmland with almost no paved roads or amenities or people living on top of each other in every square inch of a city."

~ ptwonline

Tipping Point

"Tipping for literally everything."

"20 percent for a sit down meal is understandable, but every food or delivery service till has a tip amount you have to choose between 15-20% when checking out with a card or online."

"Or hit the no tip button and feel like an a-hole."

~ Persephone_darkside

Side Effects May Include...

"Pharmaceutical commercials on TV was the most shocking. Smiling happy people talking about taking a pill to counteract the pill they were taking for (insert issue)."

"Side effects may include jumping from bridges, and uncontrollable diarrhea…. At least you’ll be smiling while you deal with all the side effects."

~ Hinano77

"I remember seeing a pharma ad in the US where one of the potential side effects in the cheery-voiced listing was 'sudden death'."

~ roehnin

On 24/7

"Being able to space out in public. I studied in France, went abroad as soon as I graduated, lived in China for a few years, Ecuador for a year after that."

"Even in China when I felt totally safe the whole time, you always have to be on in public."

"You always have to process things in a different language, you always feel foreign, you always have to make sure you're not being ripped off, the food is always different from what you grew up with."

"It's constant slight awareness of just other-ness."

I have the deepest respect for people who permanently move to a different country, especially living in their second language."

~ michiness

"Same here—lived in France for a year. I remember the sheer exhaustion of having to do everything in your non-native language day after day after day."

"I hoped it would get easier over time, but it didn't for me. My language skills definitely improved, but the mental exhaustion was still there."

"MAD props to those who come here to the US and have to learn/speak English all day, every day. It cannot be easy."

~ Vivienne1973

We, Not Me

"I lived in Japan for a year. Coming back to the states made me realize how dirty it is here and how people are lazy and disrespectful when it comes to taking care of the city and each other."

"In Japan, it’s a collective effort. Public restrooms are clean. If you have trash, you put it in your pocket or purse and hold on to it until you can find access to a trash can."

"Here? People will drop it on the ground because they cannot bother to be inconvenienced even slightly. I’ve seen people at stop lights open their door and leave bags of McDonald’s trash on the street and drive off so they can have a clean car."

"Of course one of the first public restroom experiences when I came back home was in a store where there was a drainage grate in the floor and a woman had her kid taking a piss in the grates instead of the toilet."

"And don’t get me started how if they even have the sniffles, people throughout eastern Asia wear a mask in public to be courteous. But here people like to cough directly into your face and had tantrums during a damn global pandemic."

~ PicadillyVanilly

Water, Water, Everywhere, But...

"Returned to the US from India."

"Sat down to eat at a restaurant at the airport and the waiter immediately brought me a glass of ice water."

"It took me a moment to realize that this was safe to drink here."

~ jerwong

Have you experienced culture shock? Where? What happened?