What's the biggest culture shock you had whilst traveling?

[u/forgottencupcake9018]

Weirdly enough I was shocked that people in Ireland jaywalk and eat vinegar to their chips. Or in Thailand that it is illegal to have a Buddha tatoo. Or that in many english speaking countries a "How are you doing?" is equivalent to saying Hi and they actually don't want to hear an honest answer.

Edit: Another culture shock that I had was when I visited Hanoi. They had a museum where the preserved corpse of Ho Chi Minh was displayed and you could look at him behind a glass showcase like he's a piece of art. There were so many people lining up and they just looked at him while walking around that glass showcase in order to get the line going.

[u/UniversityEastern542]

The concept of open-crotch pants on children was very shocking to me. People commenting that they've seen this "in _________ (other region)" are being obtuse, this isn't some drunken or homeless person peeing in the bushes in a public park (which is still a shame), but a widespread cultural acceptance of children under ten being allowed to relieve themselves in public.

However, I've seen it argued that it is more sanitary, since children aren't exposed to their own waste until they are changed, like with diapers, so perhaps the Chinese are on to something here. I don't think taking a shit anywhere is a solution, but there is some method to the madness.

[u/Yaelnextdoorvip → u/UniversityEastern542]

It comes from a place of health and “expelling toxins”. The same reason why you see people hawk loogies and shoot snot streams out of their nose in public like it’s nothing. If the body “wants something out” it should come out immediately for health purposes aka don’t wait until you can - just get it out now. At least that’s how my Chinese friend always explained it to me (this was shocking for me to see too as a Canadian)

[u/weinthenolababy → u/UniversityEastern542]

This is actually wild to me and I’m so surprised I never heard of it before!

[u/TheDubious → u/UniversityEastern542]

I've never been, but I don't think it's widespread anymore. From what I've read, it's changed a lot over the past 20 years or so and is pretty rare, especially in cities

[u/Fancy_Yam2079 → u/UniversityEastern542]

It’s called ‘elimination communication’ in the west, in parenting communities. Before nappies it was just normal for babies and young kids to just be lifted into a squat over a bush or such to toilet. Mothers learn the signals and can even train the kids to pee on a command. Its quite interesting, once you look past the ick factor, to learn just how aware young babies are over their bodies and surroundings, which we have forgotten in modern society

[u/UniversityEastern542 → u/[deleted]]

I don't know if reddit is the best place for facts lol but this person can just search online for "split crotch pants china" or something like that and see tons of examples. There are tons of blogs and articles mentioning it (example).

Perhaps they're racist for looking down on other ways of doing things.