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Reverse Culture Shock

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Re: Reverse Culture Shock

#171

Post by herbst »

astrodust wrote: post #168
herbst wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sort by %: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_unemploym... given there are several developed countries with worse conditions

One day you'll wake up and realize that employment in America is always unusually high. During the depths of the last recession it barely crested 10%. What makes it seem worse than it is has been the way these unemployed people are highly clustered today. There's counties with 50-60% unemployment, but they're low-population so they don't skew the national rate all that much. It certainly sucks to be in one of those a…

I am honestly not that interested in America to wake up at some point and have crazy realizations about it. Its significant worse than where i am from (in every single metric), or the third world countries i just spend months in, and as stated above i was surprised myself how many other countries seem much worse than i expected.

Re: Reverse Culture Shock

#172

Post by erikb »

All this culture and reverse culture shocking taught me to get sensitive about all the adaptions we have to make often and don't think about. E.g. when moving from New York to LA people talk about being "homesick" but people don't talk about culture shock. But it's the same, just more small scale since people still speak your language and have a somewhat similar culture compared to different countries on different ends of the world.

Right now I'm in the process of moving to another city and can appreciate a lot all the things I learned about culture shock and can handle it quite well, e.g., the overpowered feeling of loneliness that sometimes hits you really hard, or that you must be careful about sharing experiences since others don't consider the same things weird as you.

Re: Reverse Culture Shock

#173

Post by bandrami »

ido wrote: post #166
amyjess wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's one thing about old cities that people often forget about. A lot of people treat the age of their city's buildings as a point of pride. Old architecture is pretty, and there's so much heritage and historical significance. But the downside is that they're not nearly as livable as new construction. Disability access is one. Nobody's going to install a wheelchair ramp in a 500-year-old building. Here's another: a…

Even brand new (residential) construction doesn't have AC in Germany and Austria, although even 100+ year old apartment buildings will usually have central heating. It's just not hot for a long enough part of the year to be worth the expense.

Also I never, ever understood Austrian toilets. Why? Why? Who makes a flat-bottomed toilet?

Re: Reverse Culture Shock

#174

Post by kerbalspacepro »

vocatus_gate wrote: post #38
kawsper wrote: post #23

I lived 3 years in the UK, and now I am back in Denmark for a while, I hope to return, but lets see what Theresa May & co figures out. I always thought I wanted to go for the dual-citizenship, but not anymore. It is difficult to live in a new place, you don't really feel integrated even though you have friends, speak the language, go to events, pay your taxes, and get the jokes, you will always be the dane and a fore…

When I came back from my first tour to Iraq in 2004 (was 19 at the time) it took me almost a full year to feel mostly "home" again. But it definitely changed something about me, ever since that year I've never felt 100% "home" for some reason.

You're 32 now, right? Have you had some kids and a wife and stuff? Elders in my life seem to imply that the feeling of home will come back when you make it come back. A big part of losing "home" is aging out of it.

Re: Reverse Culture Shock

#175

Post by kerbalspacepro »

madradavid wrote: post #151

What a coincidence, I just got my `Carte De Sejour` (Residence Card) today. I am a Ugandan living in Paris. Uganda was colonized by the British so the official language is English, I grew in the capital city (a different tribe from mine with a different culture and different language ) so back home when I visit my relatives who live far from the city (my ancestral home) I feel like a foreigner (they used to call us `…

Sounds like you need to get to the U.S, bud.

Re: Reverse Culture Shock

#176

Post by Markoff »

dcw303 wrote: post #87

I'm six years in Japan. I think staying in touch with your home country makes a big difference. I'm yet to move back for good, but I find that two things have made my readjustment when visiting home much easier: 1. Keeping up with family via Facebook 2. Getting an AFL streaming subscription If you're not Australian it's hard to understand, but once you've experienced the greatest sport in the world it's hard to give…

good for you, you are not in China, where government try their best to sever any tes you have with your mother country, god forbid trying to videochat with your family without forcing them to install Chinese spyware... same goes for rest of the internet...

Re: Reverse Culture Shock

#177

Post by ianai »

e40 wrote: post #162
ianai wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Were you ever 'eyed down'? I got that recently at my childhood home.

I'm unfamiliar with that phrase, but I'll say: I went back in the 80's to see my uncle, after my grandparents died. The house was falling down around him, but the rest of the neighborhood was in a similar state (still poor, still all black). When I knocked, a girl on a stoop across the street told me "the white man that rides the bicycle" wouldn't be back for a while. So I hung around. Because I was there during the…

Given an aggressive stare as a nonverbal threat.

That sounds similar to what's happening to my dad's place. The city reconnected a main street to circumnavigate his entire mobile home community a few years back.

Re: Reverse Culture Shock

#179

Post by e40 »

ianai wrote: post #177
e40 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm unfamiliar with that phrase, but I'll say: I went back in the 80's to see my uncle, after my grandparents died. The house was falling down around him, but the rest of the neighborhood was in a similar state (still poor, still all black). When I knocked, a girl on a stoop across the street told me "the white man that rides the bicycle" wouldn't be back for a while. So I hung around. Because I was there during the…

Given an aggressive stare as a nonverbal threat. That sounds similar to what's happening to my dad's place. The city reconnected a main street to circumnavigate his entire mobile home community a few years back.

Never had that, but as an adult I only went back that one time. Who knows what it'd be like now.

Re: Reverse Culture Shock

#180

Post by mahyarm »

ido wrote: post #122
mahyarm wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America should not be comparing itself to developing nations, but other developed nations. In that they fall short in many things.

I've lived in Austria for (almost) 8 years and Germany for a bit over 3 - I really like both for many reasons and neither could really be accused of being a developing nation. Wheelchair accessibility is simply not a thing here, not even in Vienna and Berlin (let alone small towns or rural areas). E.g. you will often find the bathrooms in restaurants or cafes to not be accessible without going up or down a bunch of s…

The vegan / vegetarian thing is more a culture thing than a developed nation thing. You can find that food relatively easily in buddhist and hindu nations for example, even though they are mostly developing nations.
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